The Asian Football Confederation was allocated two assured qualifying berths for the 1990 FIFA World Cup. 26 teams were in the running for these spots; Bahrain, India, Maldives and South Yemen withdrew without playing a qualifying match.
Asia's two automatic qualifying berths were taken by Korea Republic and the United Arab Emirates.
Format
- First round: The Maldives withdrew before the final draw, leaving 25 teams to be divided into 6 groups of 4 or 5 teams each. Nepal was moved from Group 5 to Group 4 after India's withdrawal. The teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis, except in Group 4, where the teams played against each other twice in South Korea and Singapore. The group winners would advance to the final round.
- Final round: The 6 teams played against each other once over a 16-day period based in Singapore. The group winner and runner-up would qualify.
First round
Group 1
Qatar advanced to the final round.
Group 2
Saudi Arabia advanced to the final round.
Group 3
United Arab Emirates advanced to the final round.
Group 4
Korea Republic advanced to the final round.
Group 5
China advanced to the final round.
Group 6
Korea DPR advanced to the final round.
Final round
Standings
<onlyinclude> </onlyinclude> Korea Republic and the United Arab Emirates qualified for the 1990 FIFA World Cup.
Results
Qualified teams
The following two teams from AFC qualified for the final tournament.
<div id="1"><sup>1</sup> Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.</div>
Goalscorers
7 goals
6 goals
5 goals
4 goals
3 goals
2 goals
1 goal
1 own goal
Notes
External links