2026 FIFA World Cup/2027 AFC Asian Cup joint qualification Round 1 pots (as per FIFA World Ranking release - Thursday April 6th),

Pot A:
Kuwait
Hong Kong
Indonesia
Maldives
Afghanistan
Chinese Taipei
Yemen
Singapore
Myanmar
Nepal
Cambodia

Pot B:
Macau
Mongolia
Bhutan
Laos
Brunei Darussalam
Bangladesh
Pakistan
Timor Leste
Guam
Sri Lanka*
Northern Marina Islands

*NOTE: Sri Lanka is currently suspended by FIFA.

Round 1 Ties to be played:
Thursday October 12th - 1st leg
Tuesday October 17th - 2nd leg

2026 FIFA World Cup/2027 AFC Asian Cup joint qualification Round 2 pots (as per FIFA World Ranking release - Thursday April 6th),

Pot 1:
Japan
Iran
South Korea
Australia
Saudi Arabia
Qatar
Iraq
United Arab Emirates
Oman

Pot 2:
Uzbekistan
China
Jordan
Bahrain
Syria
Palestine
Vietnam
Kyrgyzstan
Lebanon

Pot 3:
India
Tajikistan
Thailand
North Korea
Philippines
Turkmenistan
Malaysia
winner of tie involving Kuwait+
winner of tie involving Hong Kong+

Pot 4:
winner of tie involving Indonesia+
winner of tie involving Maldives+
winner of tie involving Afghanistan+
winner of tie involving Chinese Taipei+
winner of tie involving Yemen+
winner of tie involving Singapore+
winner of tie involving Myanmar+
winner of tie involving Nepal+
winner of tie involving Cambodia+

+winner of the round 1 ties whose identity will not be known at the time of the draw.

I can also confirm The Asian Game reporter Martin Lowe via twitter in early March tweeted with the draw for both round 1 and round 2 is now very likely expected to take place in July this year.

Round 2 matches to be played,
MD 1: Thursday November 16th 2023 (pot 1 v pot 4, pot 3 v pot 2)
MD 2: Tuesday November 21st 2023 (pot 2 v pot 1, pot 4 v pot 3)
MD 3: Thursday March 21st 2024 (pot 1 v pot 3, pot 4 v pot 2)
MD 4: Tuesday March 26th 2024 (pot 2 v pot 4, pot 3 v pot 1)
MD 5: Thursday June 6th 2024 (pot 2 v pot 3, pot 4 v pot 1)
MD 6: Tuesday June 11th 2024 (pot 1 v pot 2, pot 3 v pot 4)

match venue and kickoff time deadlines to FIFA - at least 90 days before gameday and at least 60 days before gameday,
round 1 first leg: Thursday October 12th 2023 (deadline: July 14th 2023 and August 13th 2023)
round 1 second leg: Tuesday October 17th 2023 (deadline: July 19th 2023 and August 18th 2023)
round 2 - MD 1: Thursday November 16th 2023 (deadline: August 18th 2023 and September 17th 2023)
round 2 - MD 2: Tuesday November 21st 2023 (deadline: August 23rd 2023 and September 22nd 2023)
round 2 - MD 3: Thursday March 21st 2024 (deadline: December 22nd 2023 and January 21st 2024)
round 2 - MD 4: Tuesday March 26th 2024 (deadline: December 27th 2023 and January 26th 2024)
round 2 - MD 5: Thursday June 6th 2024 (deadline: March 8th 2024 and April 7th 2024)
round 2 - MD 6: Tuesday June 11th 2024 (deadline: March 13th 2024 and April 12th 2024)

Right here we go. Smaller groups of 4 this time around. For the love of god AFC federations, please don't breach anything. Sick of teams getting banned or withdrawing so that the groups get skewed meaning fewer games or results against the weakest team doesn't count.

Pot 2 is strong.

Best case: Australia, Palestine, Hong Kong, Maldives. Arguably the weakest per pot
Worst case: Australia, Uzbekistan, Thailand, Yemen. Banana skins all over.

Best travel: Australia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Singapore.

Won't happen but I wish the FA would settle all the match locations from the very start to have clarity.

thanks

Welcome to the forum!

2026 FIFA World Cup/2027 AFC Asian Cup round 2 joint qualification (heading into SAFF championship),
Pot 1: Japan Iran Australia South Korea Saudi Arabia Qatar Iraq United Arab Emirates Oman
Pot 2: Uzbekistan China Jordan Bahrain Syria Vietnam Palestine Kyrgyzstan India
Pot 3: Lebanon Tajikistan Thailand North Korea Philippines Malaysia Turkmenistan Kuwait+ Hong Kong+
Pot 4: Indonesia+ Chinese Taipei+ Maldives+ Yemen+ Afghanistan+ Singapore+ Myanmar+ Nepal+ Cambodia+

+ round one winners unknown at time of the draw.

2026 FIFA World Cup/2027 AFC Asian Cup round 1 joint qualification (heading to SAFF championship),
Pot A: Kuwait Hong Kong Indonesia Chinese Taipei Maldives Yemen Afghanistan Singapore Myanmar Nepal Cambodia
Pot B: Macau Mongolia Bhutan Laos Brunei Darussalam Bangladesh Timor Leste Pakistan Guam Sri Lanka (suspended)* Northern Marina Islands

*NOTE: Sri Lanka currently suspended by FIFA.

Draw: Thursday July 27th time yet To Be Announced by AFC.

Are these pots for Round 1 confirmed?

2026 FIFA World Cup/2027 AFC Asian Cup round 1 joint qualification pots,
Pot A: Indonesia Chinese Taipei Maldives Yemen Afghanistan Singapore Myanmar Nepal Cambodia
Pot B: Macau Mongolia Bhutan Laos Darussalam Bangladesh Timor Leste Pakistan Guam

Draw: Thursday July 27th 4.00pm AEST (2.00pm Kuala Lumpur)

2026 FIFA World Cup/2027 AFC Asian Cup round 2 joint qualification pots,
Pot 1: Japan Iran Australia South Korea Saudi Arabia Qatar Iraq United Arab Emirates Oman
Pot 2: Uzbekistan China Jordan Bahrain Syria Vietnam Palestine Kyrgyzstan India
Pot 3: Lebanon Tajikistan Thailand North Korea Philippines Malaysia Turkmenistan Kuwait Hong Kong
Pot 4: Indonesia+ Chinese Taipei+ Maldives+ Yemen+ Afghanistan+ Singapore+ Myanmar+ Nepal+ Cambodia+

+ round one winners won’t be known at time of the draw.

Draw: Thursday July 27th 6.00pm AEST (4.00pm Kuala Lumpur)

Round two match schedule,

MD 1 - Thursday November 16th 2023:
Pot 1 v Pot 4
Pot 3 v Pot 2

MD 2 - Tuesday November 21st 2023:
Pot 2 v Pot 1
Pot 4 v Pot 3

MD 3 - Thursday March 21st 2024:
Pot 1 v Pot 3
Pot 4 v Pot 2

MD 4 - Tuesday March 26th 2024:
Pot 2 v Pot 4
Pot 3 v Pot 1

MD 5 - Thursday June 6th 2024:
Pot 2 v Pot 3
Pot 4 v Pot 1

MD 6 - Tuesday June 11th 2024:
Pot 1 v Pot 2
Pot 3 v Pot 4

Thanks Brenton1986 for keeping this topic updated. Quite the feast of football for the National Teams and us over the next 12 months.

Here are official links for the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup/2027 AFC Asian Cup joint qualification round 1 draw (Thursday July 27th 4.00pm AEST/2.00pm Kuala Lumpur) and round 2 draw (Thursday July 27th 6.00pm AEST/4.00pm Kuala Lumpur).

round 1 link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zK4CgzPTMg

round 2 link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRSJlq9s6M4

Thanks

Nearly go time. Cambodia Pakistan probably the pick of the R1 pairings. Hope to see Singapore and HK get through. Bahrain, Malaysia, Singapore would be nice.

Geez probably Indonesia and Philippines in same group. Group H particularly weak at current.

Fark, F: Vietnam, Phillipines, Indonesia. I'd take D. Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia and probably Taiwan 

We'll get a lighter one. Thank god not Jordan and Tajikistan again. We're in group I: Palestine, Lebanon, Maldives/ Bangladesh. Many fans' wallets just closed up.

A: Qatar India Kuwait Afghanistan/Mongolia
B: Japan Syria North Korea Myanmar/Macau
C: South Korea China Thailand Singapore/ Guam
D: Oman Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia  Taiwan/ Timor Leste
E: Iran Uzbekistan Turkmenistan  Hong Kong/ Bhutan
F: Iraq Vietnam Philippines Indonesia/ Brunei
G: Saudi Arabia Jordan Tajikistan Cambodia/ Pakistan
H: UAE Bahrain Yemen/Sri Lanka Nepal/Laos
I: Australian Palestine Lebanon Maldives/ Bangladesh

When you look at it utterly rigged for Qatar, Oman and UAE. We got off lightly I think in that we have two European near teams plus hopefully Maldives which is less far.
Group F is cruel as the new system gave these 4 teams a dream to get to the next part but two will miss out. C is also very tough on Thailand but here's hoping they bump off China. Japan really with the exotics. 

I've always wanted Guam or Maldives. Looks like it could very well happen this time.

Just shows how much better Asian is getting. We have more slots but this looks much tougher than 4 years ago for many teams. Also, it's only 4 teams and not 5 so perhaps that extra minnow match game some total point security. I just hope no one withdraws so we have the ridiculous rule that wins against the bottom team don't count which has bitten some lower teams of sneaking through over the years.

Surely November we can get the Mo Toure situation sorted. Give Iredale a run too. Ideally we pull ahead and hopefully for a change our opponents draw where we can then afford to actually experiment. 

Yep this is the ideal scenario for these games. Wrap it up early so we can start cappin’ 

on paper looks an easy group for australia

I reckon the groups are fairly even and I'd take Palestine any day over the six higher ranked teams in pot 2.

Either way no seeded team should have trouble finishing in the top 2 of their group.

Do we know if finishing 2nd place in the group impacts seeding for the next round?

Yes impact but not about being 2nd place. if we finish 2nd in the group that means we maybe lose some games to other teams which will lose many FIFA points which will cost us to be out of top 3 seed for the final round qualification..  The last stage qualification will be divided into 3 groups of 6 teams (top 2 thr to the world cup 2026). At the moment we are ranked number 3 in asia so won't face Japan & Iran but if we drop to 4-5 we might have to face Japan again in the next stage.

I'd much rather be in that Pot 1 to have a chance of facing Saudi or Qatar from Pot 1. I'd welcome South Korea and you'd think they could do a lot of cleaning up for us. Just please, football god, can our other group opponents just have some draws for a change? The constant 3 points were menacing. Way away but Australia, South Korea, Iraq, Uzbekistan, Bahrain, Kyrgyzstan is tough, exciting and adventurous. You'd just hope a win against Iraq would be met with Uzbekistan drawing against Bahrain the same day.