Yesterday, all eye were on the Asian Federal Confederation (AFC) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This is because the draw ceremonies of the Preliminary Joint Qualification for the 2026 World Cup Asian Qualifiers took place. Amongst soccer betting fans, this was an important first step in setting team odds qualifications.
For the 2026 World Cup, the U.S, Mexico and Canada will be co-hosting the event. Thus, the FIFA World Cup will span over the entire North American continent. While it is impressive, what will make the World Cup special that year is the different format. This is because 48 teams will be participating in the 2026 World Cup. In addition, with the increase in the size of the World Cup, Asia will now have 8.5 slots available. 8 of them will be direct slots and another in the inter-confederation playoff slot
In yesterday’s announcement, the AFC made available the details of the regional qualifying process for the 2026 World Cup.
2026 World Cup Asian Qualifiers Will Begin in October
There are 45 AFC member nations and the 2023 FIFA World Cup Qualification will be as such. The bottom 18 teams in the latest FIFA world rankings will begin their qualifying campaign in the first round. These teams will make 9 pairings with each team playing a home and away game. The matches will take place on October 12 and October 17 of this year.
Afterwards, the winners of the first round will then advance to the second round. According to football betting websites, during the second round, they will be joining 27 team from the FIFA Rankings. Thus, the South Korean National Football team will begin the 2023 FIFA World Cup Qualification in November.
According to sports news, the group winners and runners-up from each of the nine groups will reach the third round. Thus, those 18 teams will also secure their places at the 2027 AFC Asian Cup in Saudi Arabia.
In the third round, the 18 teams will be split up into three groups of six. Afterwards, the top two teams from each group will qualify directly for the World Cup.
The third- and fourth-placed teams will proceed to the fourth round, where they will be divided into two groups of three. They will play against each other once at a neutral site. Afterwards, the winners of each group will qualify for the World Cup.
The runners-up from each group will reach the fifth round, where they will compete home-and-away across two legs. The winning team will represent Asia in the inter-confederation playoffs for a chance to grab the final World Cup ticket.
The draw for the first two rounds will take place July 27 in Kuala Lumpur.
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