The Qualifying Round will be held in 2011 by zones (East, West, South and Central and Asean) and the top three finishing teams from each zone will advance to the final round. Further details relating to this will be announced soon.

The participating teams in the Qualification Round are as follows:

East Zone: China PR, Korea Republic, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Macau and Mongolia

Asean Zone: Australia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, Myanmar and Cambodia

Central and South Zone: Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Maldives

West Zone: Iraq, Lebanon, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Syria, Palestine, Saudi Arabia and UAE

Although UAE has been given automatic qualification to the final round, the results of UAE will not be changed and if UAE finishes in the top three of the West Zone Qualification Round the fourth best team in the zone will qualify to the final round.

As per the decision of the AFC Futsal Committee, the top three placed countries in the previous edition of the AFC Futsal Championship Uzbekistan 2010 (IR Iran, Uzbekistan and Japan) plus the host country UAE of the Finals Competition in 2012 will be given automatic qualification to the Finals.

IR Iran became the 10-time champions after hammering hosts Uzbekistan 8-3 in the 2010 edition of the championship while Japan came up third-place winners after beating China PR 6-1.