Draw for preliminary rounds of Asian qualifiers today

LAHORE: Pakistan football team will know its first round opponent as the official draw for the preliminary qualification rounds 1 and 2 of the Asian qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup 2026 will take place on Thursday (today) at the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

As many as 45 Member Associations (MAs) from the region are set to discover their initial steps on road to the 23rd FIFA World Cup which will be co-hosted by Canada, Mexico and the United States.

As there will be 48 teams at the 2026 World Cup, the AFC has updated the qualification format. There will be eight and a half slots on offer for the continent's national teams.

The 18 lowest-ranked MAs out of the 45 as per FIFA rankings released on July 20 and subject to the number of entries submitted to FIFA will begin their qualifying journey in round 1.

These 18 teams will be divided into nine pairings with each pair to play one home and one away match on October 12 and October 17. The nine winners of round 1 will advance to round 2 where they will be joined by the remaining 27 teams. These 36 sides will be drawn into nine groups of four, competing against each team in a home-and-away round-robin format between November 2023 and June 2024. All nine group winners and the respective runners-up will advance to the third round of World Cup qualifying.

According to FIFA, the draw for the third round of the global showpiece in 2026 will be conducted in 2024 where the 18 teams will be divided into three groups of six with the top two from each group qualifying directly for the FIFA World Cup 2026. The other two direct AFC entrants will be determined in the fourth round of World Cup qualifying, with one more possible berth available via an intercontinental play-off.