The World Cup in Qatar has been over for more than half a year now and international soccer will be entering a new World Cup cycle. Due to the limited number of international match days each year, new world qualifiers usually begin the year after the previous World Cup, and another assault on the World Cup by national soccer teams officially begins. According to the official word from the AFC, the timelines related to the early stages of the Asian qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup have been finalized. Let's take a look at the timelines related to the 2026 FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifiers.
First of all, the new Asian World Qualifiers will be divided into four stages. The first stage corresponds to the peripheral competitions. 9 teams are determined by the last 18 of the 45 teams. In the second stage, the 9 teams and the first 27 teams make up the top 36. In this stage, the national soccer team will make its official debut. The third stage is the Top 18, which directly determines the 6 World Cup places. The fourth stage is the equivalent of the Asian play-offs, which determines 2 direct qualification places and 0.5 places in the intercontinental play-offs. For the national soccer team, the real battleground is the Top 18, equivalent to the previous Top 12.
The first two stages of the draw will take place on July 27, meaning that the groupings of the national soccer teams for the first 36 matches can be determined soon. There are no other international matches this month, so the slots for the draw will be organized according to the latest international rankings after the June international matches. There are nine groups of four teams each for the first 36 matches, meaning that the Asian teams are divided into four groups. The national soccer team is currently ranked 11th in Asia and secured as the second team in the draw. According to the 9-team arrangement, the national soccer team remains the second relatively higher team.
The first stage of the game is relatively simple, 18 teams draw two groups of two, two rounds of matches, the winner into the second stage of 36 games. The first phase of the two matches unified arrangement in October 12 and 17, this part of the game will be some of the fish belly team turn over, can enter the 36 strong have the opportunity to play with Japan, South Korea, these World Cup teams, is the biggest goal of these fish belly team. The second phase of the first 36 matches will begin on international days in November and run until June next year, with the national soccer team needing to finish in the top two to qualify for the first 18 matches, which isn't a big deal.
The final 18 matches will need to be redrawn until June 2024 when all 18 teams are confirmed. Information about Stage 4 will have to wait a while before being announced, and having failed to secure a direct qualification quota for Stage 3, the competition for Stage 4 will be brutal. Based on the current level of strength of the national soccer team, it would be more realistic to fight for the 2.5 quota for the fourth stage, but the national soccer team has not yet come up with a fixed set of main lineups as Zhang Yuning has not returned and Alan and Fernando have not been selected.
