The Asian regional qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup kick off in October this year.
The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) announced plans for the 2026 World Cup and 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers in Saudi Arabia through its Internet website today (7th).
The Asian regional qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup, co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada, will be held in the first and second rounds.
First, among the 45 member countries of the AFC, the bottom 18 countries based on the FIFA rankings in July will play the first round first, and the 9 countries that have passed the first qualifying round will proceed with the second qualifying round together with the remaining 27 countries.
Round 1 starts on October 12 of this year, and round 2 starts in November.
Korea, which has advanced to the World Cup finals 10 times in a row from the 1986 World Cup in Mexico to the Qatar last year, will play from the second qualifying round.
The second qualifying round will feature 36 countries divided into 9 groups and will be played on a home-and-away basis from November this year to June 2024.
The first and second place finishers in each group advance to the third qualifying round, and these countries also take a ticket to the 2027 Asian Cup finals in Saudi Arabia.
The 3rd qualifying round will be divided into 3 groups and the 2nd place in each group will advance directly to the World Cup finals.안전놀이터
In the 2026 World Cup in North and Central America, where the number of participating countries will increase to 48, 8.5 tickets are allocated to the AFC.
The remaining 2.5 chapters will be decided through the 4th Qualifier and Intercontinental Playoffs.
The schedule after the 4th Qualifier will be announced by the AFC at a later date.
The draw for the first and second rounds of the Asian Qualifiers will be held on July 27th in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.