2022 FIFA World Cup qualification (AFC)
The Asian part of the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification is the qualifiers for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. It is for the national teams who are members of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Besides from Qatar (who qualified automatically as hosts), there a total of 4 or 5 slots (4 direct slots and 1 possible inter-confederation play-off slot) to the World Cup.[1]
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Dates | 6 June 2019 – 7 June 2022 |
| Teams | 46[note 1] (from 1 confederation) |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 216 |
| Goals scored | 652 (3.02 per match) |
| Attendance | 2,076,651 (9,614 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) |  Ali Mabkhout(14 goals) |
← 2018 2026 → | |
The tournament has four rounds; the first two rounds also being qualification for the 2023 AFC Asian Cup (which is why Qatar plays in the first two rounds). The first round would have also been qualifiers for the 2020 AFC Solidarity Cup but it was cancelled.[2]
Format
The qualification format is as follows:[3]
- First round: Twelve teams (ranked 35–46) played home-and-away over two legs. The six winners advanced to the second round.
- Second round: Forty teams (ranked 1–34 and six first-round winners) were divided into eight groups of five teams to play home-and-away round-robin matches. Originally, the eight group winners and the four best group runners-up were supposed advance to the third round of FIFA World Cup qualification, as well as qualified for the 2023 AFC Asian Cup. However, since Qatar won their group, the fifth-best runners-up took their place in the third round.[4]
- Third round: Twelve teams that advanced from the second round will be divided into two groups of six teams to play home-and-away round-robin matches. The top two teams of each group will qualify for the World Cup, and the third-placed teams will advance to the fourth round.
- Fourth round: The two third-placed teams from the third round will play a single match. The winner will advance to the inter-confederation play-offs.
Entrants
All 46 FIFA associations from AFC entered qualification. The FIFA World Rankings from April 2019 was used to determine who would play in the first round. The second and third rounds used the FIFA World Rankings at the time of the draw.
Because the qualification format was for both the World Cup and Asian Cup qualifiers, both Qatar (automatically qualifying to the World Cup as hosts) and China PR (automatically qualifying to the Asian Cup as hosts) entered the second round. Qatar played for qualification to the Asian Cup, and China to the World Cup.[5]
Timor-Leste was banned from playing in the Asian Cup qualifiers after they fielded 12 players they weren't able to play in the 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification.[6] FIFA did not ban them from the World Cup qualifiers though, so Timor-Leste was allowed to enter the competition. They are not able to qualify to the Asian Cup but they can qualify to the World Cup.[7]
| Bye to the second round (Ranked 1st to 34th) |
Competing in first round (Ranked 35th to 46th) |
|---|---|
|
Schedule
The schedule of the competition according to the FIFA International Match Calendar.[9][10][11][12][13]
|
|
| Stage | Matchday | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Second round | Matchday 7 | 26 March 2020, later 8 October |
| Matchday 8 | 31 March 2020, later 13 October | |
| Matchday 9 | 4 June 2020, later 12 November, then 7 June 2021 | |
| Matchday 10 | 9 June 2020, later 17 November | |
| Third round | Matchday 1 | 3 September 2020 |
| Matchday 2 | 8 September 2020 | |
| Matchday 3 | 13 October 2020 | |
| Matchday 4 | 12 November 2020 | |
| Matchday 5 | 17 November 2020 | |
| Matchday 6 | 25 March 2021 | |
| Matchday 7 | 30 March 2021 | |
| Matchday 8 | 8 June 2021 | |
| Matchday 9 | 7 September 2021 | |
| Matchday 10 | 12 October 2021 | |
| Fourth round | First leg | 11 November 2021 |
| Second leg | 16 November 2021 | |
| Inter-confederation play-offs | First leg | March 2022 |
| Second leg | March 2022 |
First round
The draw for the first round was held on 17 April 2019 at 11:00 MST (UTC+8), at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.[14]
| Team #1 | Agg. | Team #2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Mongolia 
|
3–2 |  Brunei
|
2–0 | 1–2 |
Macau 
|
1–3[note 2] |  Sri Lanka
|
1–0 | 0–3 (awd.) |
Laos 
|
0–1 |  Bangladesh
|
0–1 | 0–0 |
Malaysia 
|
12–2 |  Timor-Leste
|
7–1 | 5–1 |
Cambodia 
|
4–1 |  Pakistan
|
2–0 | 2–1 |
Bhutan 
|
1–5 |  Guam
|
1–0 | 0–5
|
Second round
The draw for the second round was held on 17 July 2019 at 17:00 MST (UTC+8), at AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.[18]
Summary
Qualified for the third round (except Qatar) and Asian Cup (except China) as winners or top five runners-up Advanced to the Asian Cup third qualifying round as bottom three runners-up, third-placed, fourth-placed and top three fifth-placed team Advanced to the AFC Asian Cup qualifying play-off round. Denotes a team that withdrew.
| Group A | Group B | Group C | Group D | Group E | Group F | Group G | Group H |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Syria  China PR (Third round only) |
 Australia |
 Iran  Iraq |
 Saudi Arabia |
 Qatar (Asian Cup only)  Oman |
 Japan |
 United Arab Emirates  Vietnam |
 Korea Republic  Lebanon |
 Philippines  Maldives |
 Kuwait  Jordan  Nepal |
 Bahrain  Hong Kong |
 Uzbekistan  [[Palestinian National Authority {{{altlink}}}|Palestinian National Authority]]  Singapore  Yemen |
 India [[File:{{{flag alias-2013}}}|30x27px|border |alt=|link=]] Afghanistan  Bangladesh |
 Tajikistan  Kyrgyzstan  Mongolia  Myanmar |
 Malaysia  Thailand |
 Turkmenistan  Sri Lanka |
 Guam |
 Chinese Taipei |
 Cambodia |
 Indonesia |
||||
 Korea DPR |
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Group E
Group F
Group G
Group H
North Korea withdrew from the qualifying round because of COVID-19 concerns.[19][20]2022 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC Second Round
Ranking of runner-up teams
Because North Korea withdrew from Group H, games against the fifth-placed teams of each group were not counted in the ranking of the runner-up teams.[20]2022 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC Second Round
Third round
The third round consists of two groups of six teams. The first two teams in each group will qualify for the World Cup. The two third-placed teams proceed to the fourth round. The draw was held on 1 July 2021 in Malaysia.
Fourth round
The two third-placed teams in each group from the third round will play against each other in a single match to decide which team will advance to the inter-confederation play-offs.
The host city and venue for this match will be announced during the draw for this round. 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC Fourth Round
Inter-confederation play-off
The inter-confederation play-off was determined by a draw held on 26 November 2021. The fifth-placed team from AFC was drawn against the fifth-placed team from CONMEBOL.[21] The play-off is scheduled to be played as a single match in Qatar on 13 or 14 June 2022.[22] {{#lst:2022 FIFA World Cup qualification (inter-confederation play-offs)|playoff1}}
Qualified teams
The following teams from AFC qualified for the final tournament.
| Team | Qualified as | Qualified on | Previous appearances in FIFA World Cup1[broken anchor] |
|---|---|---|---|
 Qatar |
Hosts | 2 December 2010 | 0 (debut) |
Top goalscorers
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Similar pages
References
- ↑ "Current allocation of FIFA World Cup confederation slots maintained". FIFA. 30 May 2015. Archived from the original on 30 May 2015.
- ↑ "AFC Executive Committee announces updates to 2020 competitions calendar". AFC. Asian Football Confederation. 10 September 2020. Archived from the original on 5 October 2020.
- ↑ "Pakistan to learn World Cup, Asian Cup qualifying fate on April 17". Dawn.com. 22 March 2019. https://www.dawn.com/news/1471045/pakistan-to-learn-world-cup-asian-cup-qualifying-fate-on-april-17.
- ↑ Groups finalised for Qatar 2022 & China 2023 race. Asian Football Confederation. 17 July 2019. http://www.the-afc.com/competitions/fifa-world-cup/latest/news/groups-finalised-for-qatar-2022-china-2023-race.
- ↑ Palmer, Dan (31 July 2017). "Hosts Qatar to compete in qualifying for 2022 World Cup". inside the games. http://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1053493/hosts-qatar-to-compete-in-qualifying-for-2022-world-cup.
- ↑ "Federação Futebol Timor-Leste expelled from AFC Asian Cup 2023". Asian Football Confederation. 20 January 2017. Archived from the original on 1 September 2018.
- ↑ "Road to Qatar 2022: Asian teams discover Round 1 opponents". Asian Football Confederation. 17 April 2019. Archived from the original on 20 July 2019. Retrieved 28 April 2019.
- ↑ "FIFA Men's Ranking – April 2019 (AFC)". FIFA. 4 April 2019. Archived from the original on 16 April 2019.
- ↑ "AFC Competitions Calendar 2019". Asian Football Confederation. 21 March 2019. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 July 2019. Retrieved 9 December 2021.
- ↑ "AFC Competitions Calendar 2020". AFC. 25 September 2020. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 October 2020.
- ↑ "AFC Competitions Calendar 2021" (PDF). Asian Football Confederation. 17 September 2021.
- ↑ "AFC Competitions Calendar 2022" (PDF). Asian Football Confederation. 20 October 2021. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 November 2021. Retrieved 9 December 2021.
- ↑ "INTERNATIONAL MATCH CALENDAR 2020-2024" (PDF). FIFA. August 2021.
- ↑ "Draw sets out path for Asian aspirants". FIFA. 17 April 2019.
- ↑ "Football - Macau not sending team to Sri Lanka due to security concerns". Reuters. 8 June 2019.
- ↑ "AFC Statement". Asian Football Confederation. 10 June 2019. Archived from the original on 1 September 2019.
- ↑ "FIFA Disciplinary Committee sanctions Macau Football Association". FIFA. 27 June 2019.
- ↑ Asian Qualifiers draw to provide pathway to Qatar and China. Asian Football Confederation. 17 June 2019. http://www.the-afc.com/competitions/fifa-world-cup/latest/news/groups-finalised-for-qatar-2022-china-2023-race. Retrieved 9 December 2021.
- ↑ "Latest update on Asian Qualifiers". Asian Football Confederation. 16 May 2021. Archived from the original on 20 May 2021.
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 "Latest decision on Asian Qualifiers". Asian Football Confederation. 27 May 2021. Archived from the original on 2 June 2021.
- ↑ "European and intercontinental play-off draw results and reaction". FIFA. 26 November 2021. https://www.fifa.com/news/european-and-intercontinental-play-off-draw-results-and-reaction. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
- ↑ Allen, William (26 November 2021). "2022 World Cup inter-confederation play-off draw: fixtures and format". as.com. https://en.as.com/en/2021/11/26/soccer/1637955253_226019.html. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
- Notes
Other websites
- Lua error in Module:Official_website at line 90: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
- Qualifiers – Asia, FIFA.com
- FIFA World Cup, The-AFC.com