The group stages for the preliminary round of the East Asian Football Federation (EAFF) Championship was held on Thursday. The tournament will be played in Hong Kong in early December. Taiwan avoided being placed in the same group as tournament favorites, North Korea, but other tough games are up ahead.

The format for the tournament remains pretty straight-forward. Six East Asian national teams including Taiwan were divided into two groups of three based on FIFA ranking. Each team in the group will play each other once. The best team from each group then plays a final game and the winner qualifies for the EAFF Championships.

The 2025 EAFF Championship will be held in South Korea this summer. The three top-ranked FIFA countries from East Asia (China, Japan and South Korea) have automatically qualified. The winner of December’s prelim tournament will be the final side admitted.

The preliminary tournament will be held in Hong Kong in early December.

Group A will feature North Korea (ranked 110 in the FIFA rankings), Macau (185) and Guam (204). Group B will consist of hosts Hong Kong (155), Taiwan (165) and Mongolia (185).

Taiwan will play Mongolia on December 11th and Hong Kong on December 14th. Both games will be in the Mong Kok stadium.

The winners of Group A and and Group B will meet in the Hong Stadium on December 18th.