2002 FIFA World Cup qualification (AFC)

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 →

AFC Asian Qualifiers
FIFA World Cup 1958 1962 1966 1970 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022 2026
AFC Asian Cup 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2007 2011 2015 2019 2023 2027
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Listed below are the dates and results for the 2002 FIFA World Cup qualification rounds for Asia.

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.

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 play-off.
• Play-off: The two teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The winner advanced to the UEFA–AFC inter-continental play-off.

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	—

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		—	—	—	—

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	5–1	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			0–0	4–3	—	2–0
4	Hong Kong	6	1	1	4	3	10	−7	4			0–3	1–1	2–1	—

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	—

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	—

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	—

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	—

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	—

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	—

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Saudi Arabia	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	—

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	Play-off		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	—

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	Play-off		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	—

Iran won 4–0 on aggregate and advanced to the UEFA–AFC inter-confederation play-off.

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

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.

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

11 goals

10 goals

9 goals

8 goals

Below are full goalscorer lists for each round:

• FIFA.com Reports
• RSSSF Page