Players born on or after 1 January 1993 were eligible to compete in the tournament.

[3] The draw for the qualifiers was held on 4 December 2014, 11:00 UTC+8, at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

[4][5] A total of 43 AFC member national teams entered the qualifying stage and were drawn into ten groups.

The teams were seeded according to their performance in the previous season in 2013.

Iraq Jordan Saudi Arabia Syria United Arab Emirates Iran Kuwait Oman Uzbekistan Yemen Bahrain India Kyrgyzstan Nepal Tajikistan Bangladesh Lebanon Pakistan Palestine Sri Lanka Afghanistan Maldives Turkmenistan Australia China Japan North Korea South Korea Indonesia Laos Malaysia Myanmar Thailand Cambodia Chinese Taipei Singapore Timor-Leste Vietnam Brunei Hong Kong Macau1 Mongolia Philippines Bhutan Guam Northern Mariana Islands1 In each group, teams played each other once at a centralised venue.