The 2025 AFC U-20 Asian Cup was the 42nd edition of the AFC U-20 Asian Cup (including previous editions of the AFC Youth Championship and AFC U-19 Championship), the biennial international youth football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-20 national teams of Asia.
On 24 May 2024, the AFC announced that China would host the tournament. It was the first of three consecutive AFC U-20 Asian Cups to be held in China, preceding the 2027 and 2029 tournaments.
A total of 16 teams played in the tournament. The top four teams qualified for the 2025 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Chile as the AFC representatives.
Uzbekistan were the title holders, having won the title in 2023. They were eliminated on penalties by South Korea in the quarter-finals. Australia clinched their first major youth title since joining the AFC, overcoming three-time winners Saudi Arabia on penalties.
Qualification matches were played between 21 and 29 September 2024.
A total of 16 teams, including hosts China, qualified for the final tournament.
The competition was held in four venues around Shenzhen.
The tournament implemented video assistant referees (VAR), a first in the tournament's history, starting from the semi-finals onwards.
The draw of the final tournament was held on 7 November 2024 in Shenzhen, China. The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four teams, with the teams seeded according to their performance in the 2023 AFC U-20 Asian Cup final tournament and qualification, with the hosts China automatically seeded and assigned to Position A1 in the draw.
Players born on or after 1 January 2005 and on or before 31 December 2009 were eligible to compete in the tournament. Each team must register a squad of minimum 18 players and maximum 23 players, minimum three of whom must be goalkeepers.
Teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tie-breaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings:
All match times are in local time, ()
In the knockout stage, extra time and penalty shoot-out were used to decide the winner if necessary.
All four winners qualified for the 2025 FIFA U-20 World Cup.
The following teams from AFC qualified for the 2025 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Chile.