The 2006 AFC Youth Championship was the 34th instance of the AFC Youth Championship. It was held from 29 October to 12 November 2006 in India. It was the first time for India to host this tournament. Sixteen teams from the AFC qualified to the finals.
The tournament was won by North Korea, their second championship after sharing the trophy with IRAN in 1976, defeating Japan 5–3 in a penalty shootout after extra time finished in a 1–1 draw. South Korea defeated Jordan 2–0 to finish third.
The tournament also served as the Asian qualifying tournament for the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup, with a place for the 4 semi-finalists of the tournament.
33 Teams entered the Qualification, the teams were drawn into 14 groups. 11 groups with each three teams and 3 groups with two teams. The Qualification took part from November 2005 to December 2005 (except Group D which was scheduled to play in November 2005 but was postponed after the 2005 Amman bombings and played in February 2006). The Group-Winners qualified for the tournament, a Play-Off Game between the best second-placed teams from ASEAN (Myanmar) and East Asia (North Korea) was scheduled to in Kuala Lumpur on 15 February 2006. But after the withdrawal of Myanmar, the North Koreans qualified automatically. Hosts India were exempt from the qualification.
