[2][3] The six teams finishing highest in the qualifier tournament joined Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in the first group stage of the 2020 ICC Men's T20 World Cup.

[4] The tournament formed part of the ICC T20 World Cup Qualifier series, with the Netherlands winning the final.

[9] Papua New Guinea were the first team to qualify for the 2020 ICC Men's T20 World Cup from the tournament, after they won Group A, finishing above the Netherlands on net run rate.

[16] Scotland beat tournament hosts the United Arab Emirates in the third qualifier by 90 runs to secure their place in the Men's T20 World Cup.

[29] Scotland Zimbabwe[9] Netherlands Hong Kong Oman Ireland Host nation, Australia, and the nine best teams (according to the ICC T20I Championship ranking of 31 December 2018) who played in the last edition of ICC Men's T20 World Cup qualified for the final tournament directly.

Of the teams in the ICC T20I Championship ranking, initially the United Arab Emirates and Nepal could only qualify through regional competitions.

Ahead of the tournament, Mohammad Naveed was withdrawn from the UAE's squad, with Ahmed Raza named as captain in his place.

[83] Two days before the start of the tournament, the ICC confirmed that the three players dropped from the UAE's squad had all been suspended after they had breached cricket's anti-corruption rules.

[87] On 21 October 2019, Ghulam Shabber, the UAE's wicket-keeper, did not show up for the pre-match meeting ahead of the fixture against Hong Kong.

[90] On 26 October 2019, in an interview for The National, Shabber denied any involvement with corruption and announced his retirement from cricket, citing the poor remuneration for playing.

[91] Following the conclusion of the group stage, the ICC's Event Technical Committee approved two replacements in the UAE's squad.

[92] On 30 October 2019, the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) confirmed that they had suspended Shabber for absconding,[93] and that he was part of the ICC's anti-corruption investigation.

[94] In March 2021, Mohammad Naveed and Shaiman Anwar were both found guilty of corruption,[95] with each player given an eight-year ban from all cricket, backdated to 16 October 2019.

[96] In July 2021, the ICC also handed eight-year bans to Amir Hayat and Ashfaq Ahmed for violating the anti-corruption code.

[101] On 24 October 2019, the ICC announced that the bowling actions of Abiodun Abioye (Nigeria), Tom Sole (Scotland) and Selladore Vijayakumar (Singapore) were all found to be illegal.