Football at the 2006 Asian Games was held in Doha, Qatar from 18 November to 15 December 2006. The opening match was played 14 days prior to the opening ceremony. In this tournament, some 30 teams played in the men's competition, and 8 teams participated in women's competition. Turkmenistan, and Yemen withdrew from the competition before playing their first match. The organisation announced a new competition format because of this. Instead of only the group winners of the first round to go through to the second round, now also both runners-up qualified.