Asia’s top football teams will soon start their quest for the 2022 FIFA World Cup to be held in Qatar as they would know their opponents in the Asian Qualifiers Round 2 when the schedules will be announced here next month.
As many as 40 teams will be drawn into eight groups of fiveteams each and will compete in a double round robin format (home and away) fromSeptember 5, 2019 to June 9, 2020, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) saidon Monday, Xinhua news agency reported.
The draw will be held at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur onJuly 17, said the Asian football’s governing body.
The seedings for the draw will be based on the latest FIFARankings issued on June 14 with China joining Iran, Japan, South Korea,Australia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia as top seeds.
Bangladesh, Cambodia, Guam, Malaysia and Mongolia haveadvanced to Round 2 after defeating their respective opponents in Round 1 ofthe qualifiers. The decision on the outcome of the match between Macau and SriLanka is still pending, the AFC said.
The Asian qualifiers will also serve as the qualifiers forthe AFC Asian Cup 2023 to be held in China. A total of 12 teams, the groupwinners and four best runner-ups, will advance to the 2023 AFC Asian Cup finaland the final round of qualifying for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.Meanwhile, the next best 24 teams will competein a separate round of qualifiers to fight for the remaining 12 slots in the24-team Asian Cup.