Determining the date for the 2026 World Cup and 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers
The Asian Football Confederation announced the date of July 27, 2023, for the draw for the first and second rounds of the joint Asian qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup and the 2027 Asian Cup in Saudi Arabia, at the federation’s headquarters in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, at 2:00 pm and 4:00 pm local time respectively.
45 teams will participate in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, which will be held in Canada, Mexico and the United States, as this will be the third time that the first and second round competitions have been used in the Asian Cup qualifiers.
With the increase in the number of teams participating in the 2026 World Cup to 48 teams, for the first time in the history of the tournament, the Asian Football Confederation has made adjustments to the qualifying system, as the continent of Asia has eight and a half seats in the global finals. This means that the 18 teams with the lowest ranking out of 45 teams, according to the next FIFA ranking, which will be issued on July 20, will start the competition through the first round of the joint qualifiers.
The 18 teams will be divided into 9 matches, with each two teams meeting in two home and away matches on October 12 and 17, 2023.
The nine teams that achieve victory in the first round qualify to participate in the second round, in order to join the 27 teams, so that there are 36 teams in the second round, which will be divided into 9 groups, so that each group includes four teams competing in the split league system from the two round stages, during the period from November 2023 to June 2024.
The teams that finish first and second in the nine groups qualify for the third round of the World Cup qualifiers, and at the same time guarantee their seats in the 2027 AFC Asian Cup in Saudi Arabia.
The draw for the third round of the World Cup qualifiers will be drawn during the year 2024, where the 18 teams will be divided into three groups, and each group includes six teams, and the first two teams from each group qualify directly for the 2026 World Cup, while the remaining two seats will be determined through the fourth round of the World Cup qualifiers, at the same time there will be a ninth seat available through qualification for the global play-off.
On the other hand, the 18 teams that ranked third and fourth in their groups during the second round of the joint qualifiers will move to compete in the third and final round of the Asian Cup qualifiers, and the details of this stage will be announced at a later time.