How the groups were drawn
The AFC made the draw on 9 May 2026. The twenty-four qualified teams were seeded into four pots and each group took one team from each, with Saudi Arabia placed at the head of Group A as hosts. Uzbekistan, Iran, Australia, South Korea and Japan were the other five seeds.
The eight former champions ended up spread across five groups. Group F is the heaviest of them: Japan and Qatar hold six titles between them, more than any other group has. Group A has two winners in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and Group D has two in Australia and Iraq. Group B is the only one of the six with no former champion in it at all.
Reading the group tables
Each team plays the other three once, so a group is decided over three matchdays and no table means much until the last of them. The top two in every group go through. The four best third-placed teams go with them, ranked against each other across all six groups, which is why a side can finish third and still be playing in the round of 16 while another third goes home.
