The Asian Football Confederation has announced the new Asian Qualifiers system for the 2026 World Cup and the 2027 Asian Cup Qualifiers, whereby the yellow continent has 8 direct places in the World Cup in addition to the qualifying place through the play-offs, after expanding the base of participating teams to 48 commands, not 32 as before.

The Continental Confederation stated on its official website in an official statement that its executive office has formally approved the new system of qualifying games after a series of discussions with the member federation to decide on the qualification of 8 teams directly to the World Cup. Cup with the ninth team through the application.

It is planned that 18 teams will take part in the final Asian qualification for the World Cup, with its division into 3 groups, 6 teams in each, according to the separate league system of two rounds, after which the first two teams from each group (6 teams in total) will go through direct qualification for the 2026 World Cup.

The Asian addition includes the third and fourth placed teams in each group, divided into two groups so that each group includes 3 teams in the league system from one stage rather than two stages where the two first placed teams in each group qualify directly. , while the two runners-up compete with a playoff match to determine the team that represents Asia in the Continental Playoffs, still undecided on the name of the continent that will face Asia in the Global Playoffs. .

It is noteworthy that the first round of joint qualifiers will feature 22 teams ranked 26th to 47th in the world rankings, where they meet in two home and away matches, while the 11 winning teams advance to the second round of joint qualifiers. , and the second round will feature 36 teams that are ranked from 1st to 25th, in addition to the 11 winning teams in the first round, and they are divided into 9 groups, so that each group includes 4 teams competing in a divided league system from two rounds, and the first two teams from each group (18 in total) advance to the final round of the World Asian Cup qualifiers, and you also get tickets to qualify for the 2027 Asian Cup.