While a number of naturalized players are being activated, our national team regrettably misses out on the Qatar World Cup feast and instead prepares for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers ahead of schedule. With FIFA's brand new regulations, the 2026 World Cup will accommodate 48 teams, 16 more than the Qatar World Cup, which clearly means that FIFA intends to expand the participation of the World Cup in order to enhance the tournament's global influence and commercial value.
The increase in the number of teams participating in the World Cup is undoubtedly a big plus for national soccer as well as Asian soccer. According to the established rules, Asian soccer will get 8.5 seats, which gives our national team and many Asian teams with good strength a ray of hope. From the point of view of strength, form and historical results, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Iran's five seats have basically settled, they all belong to the first echelon of strength, and many times participate in the World Cup. The expansion of the Asian quota to 8.5 places has significantly reduced the suspense of qualification, and the situation is relatively stable.
The AFC has officially announced that the draws for the first and second rounds of the 2026 FIFA World Cup and 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers will be held on July 27 at 2pm and 4pm at the AFC headquarters - Kuala Lumpur. By then, 45 member associations are expected to embark on the World Cup qualifying campaign.
Thanks to the 8.5 seats that Asia will receive, the AFC has tweaked the schedule of matches for the World Qualifying Tournament, which will continue to be divided into three phases. The first stage consists of 18 Asian teams at the bottom of the rankings, divided into nine groups, with each group playing a double round-robin of home and away matches, with the winners advancing to the next stage. In the second stage, the nine teams that advanced to the first stage compete with the top 27 Asian teams, divided into nine groups of four teams each, with the top two teams in the standings advancing to the third stage. In the third stage, 18 teams are divided into 3 groups of 6 teams each, with the top two teams in each group advancing directly to the World Cup, and finally the remaining 0.5 places are determined through an intercontinental play-off.
Currently, our national team is ranked 79th in the world and 11th in Asia, and will participate in the second phase of the competition. Although there is a certain gap in the strength of the national team, if they can maintain good form, it is not out of reach to reach the top 18. It is worth mentioning that the joining of the team's naturalized players and the aging problem of international players have made our national team less competitive in the international arena, especially in the confrontation with strong teams such as Australia, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Iran, the situation is not optimistic.
In order to improve the strength of the team, the national team needs to excel in the Asian Cup and gain experience in the competition. At the same time, keeping the naturalized players in good shape is also key. If we can make a breakthrough in these two aspects, our national team's probability of qualifying in the qualifiers will be greatly improved. We expect Coach Jankovic to lead the team to make continuous progress and create new glory.
