AFC Asian Qualifiers
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AFC Asian Cup 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2007 2011 2015 2019 2023 2027

The Asian Football Confederation was allocated two assured qualifying berths for the 1990 FIFA World Cup. 26 teams were in the running for these spots; Bahrain, India, Maldives and South Yemen withdrew without playing a qualifying match.

Asia's two automatic qualifying berths were taken by Korea Republic and the United Arab Emirates.

• First round: The Maldives withdrew before the final draw, leaving 25 teams to be divided into 6 groups of 4 or 5 teams each. Nepal was moved from Group 5 to Group 4 after India's withdrawal. The teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis, except in Group 4, where the teams played against each other twice in South Korea and Singapore. The group winners would advance to the final round.
• Final round: The 6 teams played against each other once over a 16-day period based in Singapore. The group winner and runner-up would qualify.

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts		QAT	IRQ	JOR	OMA
Qatar	6	3	3	0	8	3	+5	9		—	1 – 0	1 – 0	3 – 0
Iraq	6	3	2	1	11	5	+6	8		2 – 2	—	4 – 0	3 – 1
Jordan	6	2	1	3	5	7	−2	5		1 – 1	0 – 1	—	2 – 0
Oman	6	0	2	4	2	11	−9	2		0 – 0	1 – 1	0 – 2	—

Qatar advanced to the final round.

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts		KSA	SYR	NYE	BHR
Saudi Arabia	4	3	1	0	7	4	+3	7		—	5 – 4	1 – 0	X – X
Syria	4	2	1	1	7	5	+2	5		0 – 0	—	2 – 0	X – X
North Yemen	4	0	0	4	0	5	−5	0		0 – 1	0 – 1	—	X – X
Bahrain	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		X – X	X – X	X – X	—

Saudi Arabia advanced to the final round.

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts		UAE	KUW	PAK	SYE
United Arab Emirates	4	3	0	1	12	4	+8	6		—	1 – 0	5 – 0	X – X
Kuwait	4	3	0	1	6	3	+3	6		3 – 2	—	2 – 0	X – X
Pakistan	4	0	0	4	1	12	−11	0		1 – 4	0 – 1	—	X – X
South Yemen	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		X – X	X – X	X – X	—

United Arab Emirates advanced to the final round.

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts		KOR	MAS	SIN	NEP	IND
South Korea	6	6	0	0	25	0	+25	12		—	3 – 0	3 – 0	9 – 0	X – X
Malaysia	6	3	1	2	8	8	0	7		0 – 3	—	1 – 0	3 – 0	X – X
Singapore	6	2	1	3	12	9	+3	5		0 – 3	2 – 2	—	7 – 0	X – X
Nepal	6	0	0	6	0	28	−28	0		0 – 4	0 – 2	0 – 3	—	X – X
India	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		X – X	X – X	X – X	X – X	—

Korea Republic advanced to the final round.

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts		CHN	IRN	BAN	THA
China	6	5	0	1	13	3	+10	10		—	2 – 0	2 – 0	2 – 0
Iran	6	5	0	1	12	5	+7	10		3 – 2	—	1 – 0	3 – 0
Bangladesh	6	1	0	5	4	9	−5	2		0 – 2	1 – 2	—	3 – 1
Thailand	6	1	0	5	2	14	−12	2		0 – 3	0 – 3	1 – 0	—

China advanced to the final round.

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts		PRK	JPN	IDN	HKG
North Korea	6	4	1	1	11	5	+6	9		—	2 – 0	2 – 1	4 – 1
Japan	6	2	3	1	7	3	+4	7		2 – 1	—	5 – 0	0 – 0
Indonesia	6	1	3	2	5	10	−5	5		0 – 0	0 – 0	—	3 – 2
Hong Kong	6	0	3	3	5	10	−5	3		1 – 2	0 – 0	1 – 1	—

Korea DPR advanced to the final round.

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
South Korea	5	3	2	0	5	1	+4	8
United Arab Emirates	5	1	4	0	4	3	+1	6
Qatar	5	1	3	1	4	5	−1	5
China	5	2	0	3	5	6	−1	4
Saudi Arabia	5	1	2	2	4	5	−1	4
North Korea	5	1	1	3	2	4	−2	3

Korea Republic and the United Arab Emirates qualified for the 1990 FIFA World Cup.

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The following two teams from AFC qualified for the final tournament.

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous appearances in FIFA World Cup1
South Korea	Final round winners	25 October 1989	2 (1954, 1986)
United Arab Emirates	Final round runners-up	28 October 1989	0 (debut)

¹ Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

7 goals

6 goals

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

• Asian Zone at FIFA.com