The team, led by coach Kim Sang-sik, will also face Jordan and Kyrgyzstan in Group A.
Group B includes defending champions Japan, Qatar, UAE and Syria, while Group C has Uzbekistan, South Korea, Iran, Lebanon, and Group D Iraq, Australia, Thailand and China.
In the past, under coach Gong Oh-kyun, Vietnam lost 0-2 to Saudi Arabia in the 2022 quarterfinals. Against Jordan, the team drew 0-0 in the 2020 group stage under coach Park Hang-seo and lost 1-3 in the 2016 group stage under coach Toshiya Miura. This is Kyrgyzstan’s debut in the tournament.
In the qualifiers, Vietnam topped Group C with wins over Bangladesh (2-0), Singapore (1-0), and Yemen (1-0).
Teams were seeded based on results from the 2020, 2022 and 2024 tournaments. Vietnam entered the seeding group two, with a sixth-place finish in 2020 and quarterfinal appearances in 2022 and 2024. Other teams in this seeding group include South Korea, Australia and Qatar.
The top seeding group features host Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Japan and Iraq. Group three includes Thailand, Jordan, UAE and Iran, while group four has China, Syria, Kyrgyzstan and Lebanon.
Most of the 16 qualified teams are familiar participants. Saudi Arabia are the host; Jordan, Japan, Australia, Iraq, South Korea and Uzbekistan have played in all seven editions since the first in 2013. Vietnam, Thailand, Qatar, China and UAE have six appearances, while Iran and Syria have five. Like Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon will also make their tournament debuts.
The seventh edition of the tournament will run from Jan. 7 to 25, 2026. Teams will compete in a round-robin format, with the top two from each group advancing to the quarterfinals.
Japan lead the title count with two (2016 and 2024), followed by Uzbekistan (2018), Saudi Arabia (2022), South Korea (2020) and Iraq (2013). In Southeast Asia, Vietnam hold the best record as runner-ups in 2018, Thailand reached the 2020 quarterfinals and Indonesia finished fourth in the 2024 edition that was used for Olympic qualification.
This tournament will not serve as the qualifiers for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
