sanction. India remained as the only South Asian team to qualify for the tournament. On 13 November 2018, the Asian Football Confederation warned the Iranian government to stop meddling in the country's football association, otherwise, it would have faced sanctions before the Asian Cup. The following 24 teams qualified for the final tournament: 1 As South Vietnam 2 Yemen once qualified for the 1976 AFC Asian Cup as South Yemen, but according to FIFA and the AFC, the previous records of Yemen are registered as North Yemen instead. Draw The draw of the final tournament was held on 4 May 2018, 19:30 GST, at the Armani Hotel in the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. The FIFA rankings of April 2018 were used as basis for the seeding. The 12 teams that secured their place in the final tournament by the end of the second round of the qualification process were placed in Pots 1 and 2 while the remaining teams which qualified during the third round were allocated to the remaining pots. As hosts, the United Arab Emirates were seeded into Pot 1. The 24 teams were drawn into six groups of four teams, with the hosts placed in position A1. Four renowned Asian players: Ali Daei, Sun Jihai, Sunil Chhetri, and Phil Younghusband were chosen to draw the teams. Draw result Teams were drawn consecutively into Group A to F. Teams from each pot were assigned to the positions of their groups following by number orders of group stage, for example Pot 1 team were assigned to A1, and continued. The draw resulted in the following groups: Squads Each team had to register a squad with a minimum of 18 players and a maximum of 23 players, at least three of whom must be goalkeepers. Match officials On 5 December 2018, the AFC announced the list of 30 referees, 30 assistant referees, two stand-by referees and two stand-by assistant referees, including one referee and two assistant referees from CONCACAF for the tournament. Video assistant referees (VAR) would be used from the quarter-finals onwards. In each match, the referee and his assistants were accompanied by two additional assistant referees stationed next to each team's goalpost. Referees Chris Beath Peter Green Nawaf Shukralla Fu Ming Ma Ning Liu Kwok Man Alireza Faghani Ali Sabah Mohanad Qasim Sarray Jumpei Iida Hiroyuki Kimura Ryuji Sato Ahmed Faisal Al-Ali Adham Makhadmeh Kim Dong-jin Ko Hyung-jin