FIFA announce World Cup AFC Preliminary Qualifying Round 3 draw – Khel Now

FIFA World Cup Qualifiers
Keshava Verma
The draw for the AFC Preliminary third round of the 2026 FIFA World Cup took place in Malaysia on Thursday, the 27th of June. 
Only 18 nations now remain in the hunt for a spot at the ultimate football competition in the world, as nations will now have a chance in the third round of qualifiers, to finally book their spot at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. 
The 18 teams remaining in the qualifiers have been drawn into three groups of six teams each, with the winners and runners-up in each group booking their spot at the World Cup.
Those finishing third and fourth in the round-robin format will progress to the fourth round, where an additional group phase will take place, giving two more nations their ticket to North America. 
The two fourth round runners-up will then advance to the fifth round where Asia’s representative at the FIFA Intercontinental playoff will be determined.
With the draw for the third round of FIFA World Cup 2026 Asian Qualifiers, we now have all 18 teams divided into three groups, where they will now take on each of their group opponents on a home and away basis. The third round is set to take place from September 2024 to June 2025.
Some notable excerpts from the draw include 
IR Iran
Qatar
Uzbekistan
United Arab Emirates
Kyrgyz Republic
DPR Korea
Korea Republic
Iraq
Jordan
Oman
Palestine
Kuwait
Japan 
Australia 
Saudi Arabia 
Bahrain 
China PR
Indonesia
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