[1] Same as previous editions, the tournament acts as the AFC qualifiers for the FIFA U-17 World Cup.

The draw for the qualifiers was held on 5 June 2015 at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur.

[2] A total of 45 teams entered the qualifying stage and were drawn into eleven groups.

Iran Nepal Qatar Uzbekistan Saudi Arabia Syria Bahrain Kuwait Oman Tajikistan United Arab Emirates Yemen Afghanistan India Iraq Kyrgyzstan Pakistan Palestine Bangladesh Jordan Lebanon Maldives Sri Lanka Turkmenistan Australia Japan Malaysia North Korea South Korea China Hong Kong Laos Thailand Vietnam Brunei Chinese Taipei Myanmar Philippines Singapore Cambodia Guam Macau Mongolia Northern Mariana1 Timor-Leste Bhutan Indonesia (suspended by FIFA)[3] Players born on or after 1 January 2000 were eligible to compete in the 2016 AFC U-16 Championship.

If India were one of the group winners or best runners-up, the fifth-best runner-up also qualified for the final tournament.