The 2010 AFC Challenge Cup was the third edition of the tournament which was held from 16–27 February 2010 in Sri Lanka.

[1] India, the defending champions, fielded their under-23 team for this tournament in preparation for the 2010 Asian Games later that year.

[2][3][note 1] The champions, North Korea, qualified for the 2011 Asian Cup.

The finals saw three automatic qualifiers joined by five teams from the qualification phase.

[6] Nawaf Abdulla Tan Hai Alireza Faghani Hajime Matsuo Andre El Haddad Chaiya Mahapab Mukhtar Al Yarimi Ebrahim Mubarak Huo Weiming Shaji Kurian Morteza Karimi Toshiyuki Nagi Ahmad El Kawas Mohd Sabri Mat Daud Hamed Al Mayahi Hussein Shukran All times are Sri Lanka Time (SLT) – UTC+5:30 Where two or more teams end the group stage with the same number of points, their ranking is determined by the following criteria: