The Asian Football Confederation has adopted the continental qualifying system for the 2026 World Cup, in which eight teams qualify directly for the finals scheduled in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
The Continental Confederation said in a statement on Monday, “The Asian Football Confederation’s executive office has approved the system of Asian qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup and the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers. The Asian continent has eight direct seats in the 2026 World Cup, in addition to a seat in the continental playoff, after expanding the championship World Cup 2026 to include 48 teams.
He added that the new qualifying system was adopted after consultations with the member national federations and a summary of it was submitted to the Competitions Committee.
It is noteworthy that the Asian continent will be represented in the Qatar World Cup 2022, starting next November, with five qualified teams out of 32 participation, namely Iran, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Australia, in addition to the host Qatar.
The qualifiers will be in four stages, as follows:
The first round of joint qualifiers: includes 22 teams between 26 and 47 in the world rankings, where they meet through two home and away matches. The 11 winning teams advance to the second round of the joint qualifiers.
The second round of joint qualifiers: includes 36 teams between 1 and 25 in the world rankings, in addition to the 11 winning teams in the first round. It is divided into 9 groups of four teams competing in a league system from two rounds, home and away. The champions and runners-up of each group (18) advance to the final round of the Asian qualifiers for the World Cup, and those teams will also get the qualifying cards for the 2027 Asian Cup.
– Asian Qualifiers: The 18 teams are divided into three groups of six teams competing in a league system from two rounds. The champions and runners-up of each group (6) advance directly to the 2026 World Cup Finals.
– Asian Supplement: The Asian Supplement includes the teams that ranked third and fourth in the three groups from the previous round (6), and they are divided into two groups of three teams competing in the league system from one stage. The champions of each group qualify directly for the World Cup, while the two runners-up compete in a play-off match in order to determine the representative of Asia in the continental play-off.
After the end of the first and second rounds of the joint qualifiers, the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers will continue as follows:
– Asian Cup Qualifiers Supplement: 10 of the losers meet in the first round of the joint qualifiers through two home and away matches, and the five winning teams qualify for the final round of the Asian Cup qualifiers.
The final round of the Asian Cup qualifiers: includes 24 teams (the team with the highest ranking among the losers in the first round of the joint qualifiers, the 18 teams that ranked third and fourth in the second round of the joint qualifiers, and the five winning teams in the AFC Asian Cup qualifiers supplement). Divided into six groups of four teams, the first place in each group qualifies for the 2027 Asian Cup finals.
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