2002 FIFA World Cup qualification (AFC)

Listed below are the dates and results for the 2002 FIFA World Cup qualification rounds for Asia.

2002 FIFA World Cup qualification (AFC)

Tournament details
Dates	24 November 2000 - 15 November 2001
Teams	39 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	153
Goals scored	587 (3.84 per match)
Attendance	2,730,506 (17,846 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Hani Al-Dhabit Yaqoob Juma Al-Mukhaini Talal Al-Meshal Said Bayazid (11 goals each)
← 1998 2006 →

The Asian Football Confederation was allocated four and half qualifying berths for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, South Korea and Japan, the co-hosts, qualified automatically, leaving two and half spots open for competition between 40 teams. Myanmar withdrew from the tournament after being placed in Group 2 but before any matches had been played, therefore reducing the group to 3 teams.

Afghanistan, Bhutan and North Korea chose not to participate.

Asia's two remaining automatic qualifying berths were taken by Saudi Arabia and China.

Iran defeated United Arab Emirates for the chance to become the possible third Asian qualifier, but lost to Ireland in the inter-continental play-off.

Format

There were three rounds of play:

• First round: The 39 teams were divided into nine groups of four teams each, and one group of three teams. The teams played against each other twice, except in group 2, where the teams played against each other once. The group winners advanced to the second round.
• Second round: The 10 teams were divided into two groups of five teams. The teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners qualified for the World Cup. The runners-up advanced to the AFC third round.
• Third round: The two teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The winner advanced to the UEFA–AFC inter-continental play-off.

First round

Main article: 2002 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC first round

Group 1

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Oman	6	5	1	0	33	3	+30	16	Second round		—	2–0	12–0	7–0
2	Syria	6	4	1	1	40	6	+34	13			3–3	—	11–0	12–0
3	Laos	6	1	1	4	3	40	−37	4			0–7	0–9	—	2–0
4	Philippines	6	0	1	5	2	29	−27	1			0–2	1–5	1–1	—

Source: ^[1]

Group 2

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Iran	2	2	0	0	21	0	+21	6	Second round		—	2–0	19–0	—
2	Tajikistan	2	1	0	1	16	2	+14	3			—	—	16–0	—
3	Guam	2	0	0	2	0	35	−35	0			—	—	—	—
4	Myanmar	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Withdrew		—	—	—	—

Source: ^[1]

Group 3

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Qatar	6	5	1	0	14	3	+11	16	Second round		—	2–1	0–0	2–0
2	Palestine	6	2	1	3	8	9	−1	7			1–2	—	1–0	1–0
3	Malaysia	6	2	1	3	8	11	−3	7			1–5	4–3	—	2–0
4	Hong Kong	6	1	1	4	3	10	−7	4			0–3	1–1	2–1	—

Source: ^[1]

Group 4

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Bahrain	6	5	0	1	9	4	+5	15	Second round		—	1–2	1–0	2–0
2	Kuwait	6	4	1	1	9	3	+6	13			0–1	—	2–0	1–1
3	Kyrgyzstan	6	1	1	4	3	9	−6	4			1–2	0–3	—	1–1
4	Singapore	6	0	2	4	3	8	−5	2			1–2	0–1	0–1	—

Source: ^[1]

Group 5

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Thailand	6	5	1	0	20	5	+15	16	Second round		—	2–2	4–2	3–0
2	Lebanon	6	4	1	1	26	5	+21	13			1–2	—	4–0	6–0
3	Sri Lanka	6	1	1	4	8	20	−12	4			0–3	0–5	—	3–1
4	Pakistan	6	0	1	5	5	29	−24	1			0–6	1–8	3–3	—

Source: ^[1]

Group 6

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Iraq	6	4	2	0	28	5	+23	14	Second round		—	1–1	4–2	8–0
2	Kazakhstan	6	4	2	0	20	2	+18	14			1–1	—	4–0	3–0
3	Nepal	6	2	0	4	13	25	−12	6			1–9	0–6	—	4–1
4	Macau	6	0	0	6	2	31	−29	0			0–5	0–5	1–6	—

Source: ^[1]

Group 7

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Uzbekistan	6	4	2	0	20	5	+15	14	Second round		—	1–0	2–2	7–0
2	Turkmenistan	6	4	0	2	12	7	+5	12			2–5	—	2–0	1–0
3	Jordan	6	2	2	2	12	7	+5	8			1–1	1–2	—	6–0
4	Chinese Taipei	6	0	0	6	0	25	−25	0			0–4	0–5	0–2	—

Source: ^[1]

Group 8

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	United Arab Emirates	6	4	0	2	21	5	+16	12	Second round		—	3–2	1–0	4–0
2	Yemen	6	3	2	1	14	8	+6	11			2–1	—	3–3	1–0
3	India	6	3	2	1	11	5	+6	11			1–0	1–1	—	5–0
4	Brunei	6	0	0	6	0	28	−28	0			0–12	0–5	0–1	—

Source: RSSSF

Group 9

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	China	6	6	0	0	25	3	+22	18	Second round		—	5–1	10–1	3–1
2	Indonesia	6	4	0	2	16	7	+9	12			0–2	—	5–0	6–0
3	Maldives	6	1	1	4	8	19	−11	4			0–1	0–2	—	6–0
4	Cambodia	6	0	1	5	2	22	−20	1			0–4	0–2	1–1	—

Source: ^[1]

Group 10

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Saudi Arabia (H)	6	6	0	0	30	0	+30	18	Second round		—	5–0	6–0	6–0
2	Vietnam	6	3	1	2	9	9	0	10			0–4	—	0–0	4–0
3	Bangladesh	6	1	2	3	5	15	−10	5			0–3	0–4	—	2–2
4	Mongolia	6	0	1	5	2	22	−20	1			0–6	0–1	0–3	—

Source: ^[1]
(H) Hosts

Second round

Main article: 2002 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC second round

Group A

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Saudi Arabia	8	5	2	1	17	8	+9	17	2002 FIFA World Cup		—	2–2	1–1	1–0	4–1
2	Iran	8	4	3	1	10	7	+3	15	Third round		2–0	—	0–0	2–1	1–0
3	Bahrain	8	2	4	2	8	9	−1	10			0–4	3–1	—	2–0	1–1
4	Iraq	8	2	1	5	9	10	−1	7			1–2	1–2	1–0	—	4–0
5	Thailand	8	0	4	4	5	15	−10	4			1–3	0–0	1–1	1–1	—

Source: ^[1]

Group B

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	China	8	6	1	1	13	2	+11	19	2002 FIFA World Cup		—	3–0	2–0	3–0	1–0
2	United Arab Emirates	8	3	2	3	10	11	−1	11	Third round		0–1	—	4–1	0–2	2–2
3	Uzbekistan	8	3	1	4	13	14	−1	10			1–0	0–1	—	2–1	5–0
4	Qatar	8	2	3	3	10	10	0	9			1–1	1–2	2–2	—	0–0
5	Oman	8	1	3	4	7	16	−9	6			0–2	1–1	4–2	0–3	—

Source: ^[1]

Third round

Main article: 2002 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC third round

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Iran	4–0	United Arab Emirates	1–0	3–0

Inter-confederation play-offs

Main article: 2002 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA–AFC play-off)

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Republic of Ireland	2–1	Iran	2–0	0–1

Qualified teams

The following four teams from AFC qualified for the final tournament.

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous appearances in FIFA World Cup1
Japan	Hosts	31 May 1996	1 (1998)
South Korea			5 (1954, 1986, 1990, 1994, 1998)
Saudi Arabia	Second round group A winners	21 October 2001	2 (1994, 1998)
China	Second round group B winners	7 October 2001	0 (debut)

¹ Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

Top goalscorers

There were 587 goals scored in 153 matches, for an average of 3.84 goals per match.

11 goals

• Hani Al-Dhabit
• Yaqoob Juma Al-Mukhaini
• Talal Al-Meshal
• Said Bayazid

10 goals

• Ali Daei
• Obeid Al-Dosari
• Kiatisuk Senamuang
• Yaser Salem Ali
• Jafar Irismetov

9 goals

• Hesham Mohammed

8 goals

• Karim Bagheri
• Sami Al-Jaber
• Mirjalol Qosimov

Below are full goalscorer lists for each round:

• First round
• Second round
• Third round