1990 FIFA World Cup qualification (AFC)

Tournament details
Teams	25 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Top scorer(s)	Hwang Sun-Hong (7 goals)
Best player(s)	Kim Joo-sung [1]
← 1986 1994 →

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

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts		QAT	IRQ	JOR	OMA
Qatar	6	3	3	0	8	3	+5	9		—	1 – 0	1 – 0	3 – 0
Iraq	6	3	2	1	11	5	+6	8		2 – 2	—	4 – 0	3 – 1
Jordan	6	2	1	3	5	7	−2	5		1 – 1	0 – 1	—	2 – 0
Oman	6	0	2	4	2	11	−9	2		0 – 0	1 – 1	0 – 2	—

Qatar advanced to the final round.

Group 2

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts		KSA	SYR	NYE	BHR
Saudi Arabia	4	3	1	0	7	4	+3	7		—	5 – 4	1 – 0	X – X
Syria	4	2	1	1	7	5	+2	5		0 – 0	—	2 – 0	X – X
North Yemen	4	0	0	4	0	5	−5	0		0 – 1	0 – 1	—	X – X
Bahrain	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		X – X	X – X	X – X	—

Saudi Arabia advanced to the final round.

Group 3

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts		UAE	KUW	PAK	SYE
United Arab Emirates	4	3	0	1	12	4	+8	6		—	1 – 0	5 – 0	X – X
Kuwait	4	3	0	1	6	3	+3	6		3 – 2	—	2 – 0	X – X
Pakistan	4	0	0	4	1	12	−11	0		1 – 4	0 – 1	—	X – X
South Yemen	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		X – X	X – X	X – X	—

United Arab Emirates advanced to the final round.

Group 4

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts		KOR	MAS	SIN	NEP	IND
South Korea	6	6	0	0	25	0	+25	12		—	3 – 0	3 – 0	9 – 0	X – X
Malaysia	6	3	1	2	8	8	0	7		0 – 3	—	1 – 0	3 – 0	X – X
Singapore	6	2	1	3	12	9	+3	5		0 – 3	2 – 2	—	7 – 0	X – X
Nepal	6	0	0	6	0	28	−28	0		0 – 4	0 – 2	0 – 3	—	X – X
India	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		X – X	X – X	X – X	X – X	—

Korea Republic advanced to the final round.

Group 5

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts		CHN	IRN	BAN	THA
China	6	5	0	1	13	3	+10	10		—	2 – 0	2 – 0	2 – 0
Iran	6	5	0	1	12	5	+7	10		3 – 2	—	1 – 0	3 – 0
Bangladesh	6	1	0	5	4	9	−5	2		0 – 2	1 – 2	—	3 – 1
Thailand	6	1	0	5	2	14	−12	2		0 – 3	0 – 3	1 – 0	—

China advanced to the final round.

Group 6

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts		PRK	JPN	IDN	HKG
North Korea	6	4	1	1	11	5	+6	9		—	2 – 0	2 – 1	4 – 1
Japan	6	2	3	1	7	3	+4	7		2 – 1	—	5 – 0	0 – 0
Indonesia	6	1	3	2	5	10	−5	5		0 – 0	0 – 0	—	3 – 2
Hong Kong	6	0	3	3	5	10	−5	3		1 – 2	0 – 0	1 – 1	—

Korea DPR advanced to the final round.

Final round

Standings

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
South Korea	5	3	2	0	5	1	+4	8
United Arab Emirates	5	1	4	0	4	3	+1	6
Qatar	5	1	3	1	4	5	−1	5
China	5	2	0	3	5	6	−1	4
Saudi Arabia	5	1	2	2	4	5	−1	4
North Korea	5	1	1	3	2	4	−2	3

Korea Republic and the United Arab Emirates qualified for the 1990 FIFA World Cup.

Results

12 October 1989

United Arab Emirates	0–0	North Korea

National Stadium, Singapore

Referee: Rune Larsson ( Sweden)

12 October 1989

China	2–1	Saudi Arabia
Mai Chao 63' ( pen.), 70'	(Report)	Al-Bishi 24' ( pen.)

National Stadium, Singapore

Referee: Carlos Esposito ( Argentina)

13 October 1989

South Korea	0–0	Qatar

National Stadium, Singapore

Referee: Joël Quiniou ( France)

16 October 1989

Qatar	1–1	Saudi Arabia
Muftah 87'	(Report)	Al-Suwaiti 4'

National Stadium, Singapore

Attendance: 15,000

Referee: Zoran Petrović ( Yugoslavia)

16 October 1989

South Korea	1–0	North Korea
Hwang Sun-Hong 18'

National Stadium, Singapore

Referee: José Antonio García ( Mexico)

17 October 1989

United Arab Emirates	2–1	China
K. Mubarak 87' Al Talyani 88'		Tang Yaodong 61'

National Stadium, Singapore

Referee: Joël Quiniou ( France)

20 October 1989

South Korea	1–0	China
Kim Joo-Sung 67'

National Stadium, Singapore

Referee: Rune Larsson ( Sweden)

20 October 1989

North Korea	2–0	Qatar
Kim Pung-Il 23' Ghu Gyong-Sik 32'

National Stadium, Singapore

Referee: José Antonio García ( Mexico)

21 October 1989

Saudi Arabia	0–0	United Arab Emirates
	(Report)

National Stadium, Singapore

Referee: Vincent Mauro ( United States)

24 October 1989

United Arab Emirates	1–1	Qatar
K. Mubarak 20'		Sulaiti 37'

National Stadium, Singapore

Referee: Zoran Petrović ( Yugoslavia)

24 October 1989

China	1–0	North Korea
Xie Yuxin 67'

National Stadium, Singapore

Referee: Rune Larsson ( Sweden)

25 October 1989

South Korea	2–0	Saudi Arabia
Hwangbo Kwan 42' Hwang Sun-Hong 89'	(Report)

National Stadium, Singapore

Attendance: 11,288

Referee: Carlos Esposito ( Argentina)

28 October 1989

Qatar	2–1	China
Al-Soufi 87' Muftah 87'		Ma Lin 76'

National Stadium, Singapore

Referee: Vincent Mauro ( United States)

28 October 1989

United Arab Emirates	1–1	South Korea
Al Talyani 16'		Hwangbo Kwan 8'

Jurong Stadium, Singapore

Referee: Joël Quiniou ( France)

28 October 1989

Saudi Arabia	2–0	North Korea
Al-Musaibeah 13' Al-Suwaiti 57'	(Report)

Jalan Besar Stadium, Singapore

Referee: José Antonio García ( Mexico)

Qualified teams

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

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous appearances in FIFA World Cup 1
South Korea	Final round winners	25 October 1989	2 ( 1954, 1986)
United Arab Emirates	Final round runners-up	28 October 1989	0 (debut)

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

Goalscorers

7 goals

6 goals

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

Notes

External links

• Asian Zone at FIFA.com