The Asian section of the

2026 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification will decide the 45 teams that will join hosts Canada men's national soccer team, Canada, Mexico national football team, Mexico, and the United States men's national soccer team, United States at the 2026 FIFA ...

is acting as qualifiers for the

2026 FIFA World Cup The 2026 FIFA World Cup, marketed as FIFA World Cup 26, will be the 23rd FIFA World Cup, the Anniversary#Latin-derived numerical names, quadrennial international men's Association football, soccer championship contested by the List of men's n ...

for national teams of the

Asian Football Confederation The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) is the governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal in most countries and territories in Asia. The AFC was formed in 1954. It has 47 members. The Asian Ladies Football Confederation ( ...

(AFC). AFC teams have been allocated eight direct qualifying slots and one inter-confederation play-off slot. The qualification process involves five rounds; the first two also serving as

qualification Qualification may refer to: Processes * Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS), a competitive contract procurement process established by the United States Congress * Process qualification, ensures that manufacturing and production processes can ...

for the

2027 AFC Asian Cup The 2027 AFC Asian Cup will be the 19th edition of the AFC Asian Cup, the quadrennial international men's association football, football championship of Asia organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The tournament involves 24 nationa ...

Entrants

All FIFA-affiliated nations entered the joint qualification process for both the 2026 FIFA World Cup and 2027 AFC Asian Cup;

Northern Mariana Islands The Northern Mariana Islands, officially the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), is an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territory and Commonwealth (U.S. insular area), commonwealth of the United States consistin ...

, who is not a

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

member, would have entered through the 2027 AFC Asian Cup qualification play-off round. However, the AFC excluded Northern Mariana Islands from the draw for the play-off round.

Format

The qualification format was announced on 1 August 2022, having been revamped to fit the increased finals allocation of eight direct qualifiers and one play-off qualifier: *First round: 20 teams (ranked 27–46) played home-and-away over two legs. The ten winners advanced to the second round. The best loser qualified for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup qualification third round, while the remaining teams qualified for the

2027 AFC Asian Cup qualification – play-off round The play-off round of the 2027 AFC Asian Cup qualification was played between 5 and 10 September 2024. Format When the play-off round was originally announced, a total of ten teams (the 2nd to 10th ranked losing teams from the first round plus th ...

. *Second round: 36 teams (ranked 1–26 and ten first-round winners) were divided into nine groups of four teams. The teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The nine group winners and group runners-up advanced to the third round and automatically qualified for the

. The remaining teams qualified for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup qualification third round. *Third round: 18 teams which advanced from the second round were divided into three groups of six teams. The teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The top two teams of each group qualified directly for the FIFA World Cup, the third- and fourth-placed teams advanced to the fourth round. *Fourth round: Six third- and fourth-placed teams from the third round are divided into two groups of three teams each. The teams will play against each other once in a centralized venue. The winners of each group qualify for the World Cup, and the runners-up of each group advance to the fifth round. *Fifth round: The group runners-up in the fourth round will compete home-and-away over two legs to determine the Asian representation at the inter-confederation play-offs.

Draw

The draw for the first and second rounds of joint qualification took place in

Kuala Lumpur Kuala Lumpur (KL), officially the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, is the capital city and a Federal Territories of Malaysia, federal territory of Malaysia. It is the largest city in the country, covering an area of with a census population ...

, Malaysia on 27 July 2023. The top 26 ranked teams were given byes to the second round, while the 20 teams entering the first round were seeded into two pots of 10 teams each and drawn alternately from pot 1 then pot 2 to form a pairing. The team from pot 1 hosted the first leg and the team from pot 2 hosted the second leg. Pots 1, 2 and 3 for the second round draw contained the teams ranked 1–9, 10–18, and 19–26, respectively, while pot 4 contained placeholders for the ten first round ties. Nine teams were drawn from pot 4 first and placed in position 4 of each group. The tenth team from pot 4 was moved to Pot 3, and subsequently drawn at random from Pot 3. Teams were then drawn into each group sequentially from pots 3, 2, and 1.

Schedule

The competition schedule is expected to be as follows:

First round

Note: Bolded teams qualified for the

second round The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of Un ...

of World Cup qualifying.

Second round

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Group G

Group H

Group I

Third round

Group A

Group B

Group C

Fourth round

Group A

Group B

Fifth round

The two second-placed teams in each group from the fourth round will play against each other over two legs in November 2025 to determine which team advances to the inter-confederation play-offs.

Inter-confederation play-offs

The fifth-round winner will join one team each from

CAF CAF or caf may refer to: Armed forces *Canadian Armed Forces (Canadian Forces), the Canadian Air Force, Army, and Navy *Canadian Air Force, now the Royal Canadian Air Force *Republic of China Air Force, the air force of the Republic of China (Tai ...

CONMEBOL CONMEBOL ( ) or CSF (; ; ), is the continental governing body of football in South America and it is one of FIFA's six continental confederations. The oldest continental confederation in the world, its headquarters are located in Luque, Parag ...

, and OFC and two from

CONCACAF The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football, abbreviated as CONCACAF ( ; typeset for branding purposes since 2018 as Concacaf), is one of FIFA's six continental governing bodies for association football. Its 4 ...

in the inter-confederation play-offs. The teams will be ranked according to the

FIFA Men's World Ranking The FIFA Men's World Ranking is a ranking system for men's national teams in association football, first introduced in December 1992. The men's teams of the member nations of FIFA, football's world governing body, are ranked based on their gam ...

, with the four lowest-ranked teams playing in two matches. The winners will meet the two highest-ranked teams in another set of matches, with the winners of these matches qualifying for the

Qualified teams

The following teams from AFC qualified for the final tournament. :

¹ ''Italic'' indicates hosts for that year.

² Australia qualified as a member of the OFC in 1974 and 2006 (qualifying took place until 2005, and they left the OFC for the AFC in 2006).

Top goalscorers

Below are full goalscorer lists for each round:

Controversies

Second round

During the Qatar vs India match, Qatar scored an equaliser in the 73rd minute after the ball possibly went out of play over the goal line. India were eventually eliminated from the FIFA World Cup qualifiers in the second round after a 2–1 defeat.

Third round

In the Bahrain vs Japan match, the

Bahrain Football Association The Bahrain Football Association () is the governing body of football in Bahrain, and controls the Bahrain national football team, the women's and under-17, under-20 and under-23 national teams and domestic football competitions. It was founded i ...

was fined $4,400 for fan misconduct during Japan's 5–0 win over Bahrain, which included the use of laser pointers and whistles to distract players, as well as Bahraini fans being heard mocking the Japanese national team's anthem. In the match between Bahrain and Indonesia, Bahrain equalised in the ninth minute of stoppage time, despite the fourth official displaying only six minutes of stoppage time. Two players were cautioned after the goal, with one of the Indonesian officials also sent off.

References

External links

*
FIFA.comFIFA World Cup
– the-AFC.com {{2026 FIFA World Cup qualification Afc FIFA World Cup qualification (AFC)

FIFA World Cup qualification The FIFA World Cup qualification is a set of competitive matches that a national association football team plays in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the men's FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments ar ...

Entrants

Format

Draw

Schedule

First round

Second round

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Group G

Group H

Group I

Third round

Group A

Group B

Group C

Fourth round

Group A

Group B

Fifth round

Inter-confederation play-offs

Qualified teams

Top goalscorers

Controversies

Second round

Third round

See also

References

External links