[3] The draw for the group stage was held on 10 December 2019, 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):[3] The original schedule of each matchday was as follows.
[16][17] The AFC announced the cancellation of the remainder of the competition on 10 September 2020, due to logistics in coordinating the five zones.
Moreover, AFC had earlier confirmed Maldives as the host for the South Asia Zone matches of Group E, which would be played at the National Football Stadium, Malé.
[18] On 5 August 2020, AFC announced that Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan had been confirmed as the hosts for the West Asia Zone matches of Groups A, B and C respectively.