[1] Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya from Iraq won the title for the third consecutive year, defeating Altyn Asyr from Turkmenistan in the final.

The five winners of the play-off round advanced to the group stage to join the 31 direct entrants.

[19] The draw for the group stage was held on 6 December 2017, 14:00 MYT (UTC+8), at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

If tied on points, tiebreakers were applied in the following order (Regulations Article 10.5):[1] In the knockout stage, the 11 teams played a single-elimination tournament.

[1] The bracket was decided after the draw for the Zonal finals and the Inter-zone play-off semi-finals, which was held on 23 May 2018, 15:00 MYT (UTC+8), at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

[24] Note: Goals scored in the qualifying play-offs are not counted when determining top scorer (Regulations Article 64.4).