On May 27, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) officially announced that South Korea had emerged as the top team in Group H, given that North Korea's results in the first five rounds of the World Qualifying Tournament were invalid.
According to the Asian qualifying rules for the World Qualifying Tournament, there were originally eight group winners and four best-performing group second-place finishers who were able to advance. In view of the elimination of North Korea's results, the other groups will play a play-off between the 2nd and 5th place after the final round of ranking is determined to ensure the fairness of the competition results.
The following criteria will be followed in finalizing the rankings of the four second-place teams in the top-performing groups:
1. First compare the group points;
2. In the event of a tie in points, the total number of goals scored by the group is taken into account;
3. If the goal difference is also the same, it is based on the total number of goals scored in the group;
4. If no distinction can still be made, fair play points, including red and yellow card points, are taken into account.
