For the first time, the defending champions (Japan), did not earn an automatic berth in the finals and had to compete in the qualification tournament.

Twelve teams from top two of each groups joined with four host nations (Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam) qualify for the final tournament.

The Australian team which had just joined the Asian Football Confederation on 1 January 2006 and had not participated in previous tournaments was given the lowest rank.

[1] Japan China Iran Bahrain Uzbekistan Jordan South Korea Iraq Saudi Arabia Kuwait Qatar Oman United Arab Emirates Syria Yemen Lebanon Singapore Hong Kong Palestine Chinese Taipei Pakistan* Bangladesh India Australia If two or more teams in a group are equal on points on completion of the group matches, their places shall be determined as follows:

1 On 1 August 2006, it was announced that the AFC had accepted a withdrawal request from the Federation Libanaise de Football due to the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict.