Over the past century, the AFC Asian Cup has seen various changes in its qualification format as well as the number of teams participating.

This saw teams from all zones competing against each other in Asian Cup qualifiers for the first time since its inception.

Two teams from each group qualified for the final tournament, along with the winners of previous edition who received a direct entry and as well as the hosts.

The format was reverted to an older one where teams were segregated based upon their location, but this time the number of participating nations increased.

The hosts, previous edition's winners, runner-up and third placed sides automatically qualified for the final tournament.

AFC Challenge Cup winners(2) were also awarded a slot in the final tournament.

In the qualifying round, the top two teams from each group received a berth in the final tournament.

Note that this order does not represent any official rankings, and qualification tournaments are not direct competitions among all teams.