The Asian Football Confederation has decided to adopt a continental qualifying system for the 2026 World Cup, in which 8 teams will directly qualify for the tournament, which will be held in the United States, Canada and Mexico. The 2026 World Cup will have 48 teams, while the 2022 World Cup will only have 32 teams.
Qualifiers consist of 4 stages:

– First round of joint qualifiers: 22 teams ranked between 26th and 47th in the world rankings will face off in two home and away matches, while 11 teams will advance to the second round.

– Second Round of Joint Qualification: This will feature 36 teams ranked 1-25 in the world rankings, in addition to the 11 teams that qualified from the first round in two home and away matches. Teams will be divided into 9 groups of 4 teams per group. The champion and finalist of each group advance to the final round of the playoffs.

– Asian qualifier: 18 teams will be divided into 3 groups of 6 teams each. These teams will compete in a league system, home and away. The champions and runners-up of each group advance directly to the finals of the 2026 World Championships.

– Asian Playoff: This will bring together the teams that finished third and fourth in the previous round and will be divided into two groups of 3 teams each competing in a league system in one match. . Whoever tops the group directly qualifies for the World Championship, while the two runners-up compete in a play-off match.

As for the qualifiers for the 2027 Asian Cup, they are distributed as follows:

– Addition to the AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers: The 10 losing teams will face each other in the first round of joint qualifiers in two home and away matches, while the five winning teams will advance to the final round of the AFC Asian Cup qualifiers.

AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers Final Round: 24 teams will compete (the highest ranked team among the losers in the first round of joint qualification, the 18 teams that finished third and fourth in the second round of joint qualification). qualification, five winning teams in addition to the Asian Cup qualification). These teams will be divided into 6 groups of 4 teams and the first place in each group will qualify for the 2027 Asian Cup.