Khaberni - Only six Asian teams remain in the race to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup finals, as the continent awaits the start of the group stage competitions of the Asian qualifying playoffs, which qualify for the World Cup, to be held next year in the United States, Mexico, and Canada.
The Asian Play-off events kick off on Wednesday, with the competitions continuing until October 14, and the Arab teams are looking to strengthen their presence at the tournament through the Asian qualifying gate. Three teams represent them so far: Jordan from Asia, and Morocco and Tunisia from Africa, with the potential qualification of Egypt and Algeria also on the horizon, as they are on the verge of ascending to the 2026 World Cup through this month’s African qualifiers.
The competitions will see the six teams in the Asian playoffs distributed into two groups, where the group leader of each automatically qualifies, joining the six teams that have already secured their participation in the global tournament, namely Jordan, Iran, Japan, Uzbekistan, South Korea, and Australia.
The matches are played in a one-round league system at a single venue, where the Qatar Football Association hosts Group One matches, while its Saudi counterpart hosts the Group Two encounters.
This playoff features five Arab national teams, thus ensuring at least one more representative in the World Cup, with Group One comprising Qatar, the UAE, and Oman, while Group Two includes Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Indonesia.
Entering this stage, the Omani team is seeking a historic achievement by qualifying for the World Cup for the first time, while Indonesia, Iraq, and the UAE are aiming for their second qualification in history. Meanwhile, the Qatari and Saudi teams are looking for their second consecutive participation.
The first round in Group One opens on Wednesday with the match featuring the Omani team, currently ranked 78th globally in the FIFA world rankings, versus its Qatari counterpart, ranked 53rd globally.
The Omani team is making its tenth attempt in the Asian qualifiers, buoyed by its 2-1 win in the last encounter against Qatar in December (last year) during the Gulf Cup, marking its first victory over the team (Al-Annabi) after an absence of 11 matches, specifically since September 2009,
As for the Qatari team, champion of the Asian Cup in 2019 and 2023, it is aiming for a strong start at home in its eleventh attempt, after its first World Cup participation in 2022 as the host nation.
