Category: News

Skočić starts the squad preparation ahead of the trip to Austria.

Team Melli will be playing a practice match in September against one of the league teams while in its camp in September before the legionnaires join for FIFA daybreak.

According to reports, Dragan Skočić attended matches of the Iranian Premier League in the past few days and watched two matches in Tehran and Isfahan. After returning to Tehran, he had a meeting with the officials of the Football Federation and will leave for Qatar today for the training camp arrangements. During this trip, he will watch Qatar Star League QSL matches involving Iranian players. He will also meet with the Legionnaires to discuss plans. Skocic also intends to meet with the players’ club coaches.

In his recent meeting with the officials of the Football Federation, Skocic requested to hold a friendly meeting before the FIFA window for international games. According to the schedule, Team Melli team camp will start on the 12th of September with domestic players in Tehran. According to Osulli, the FFIRI spokesperson, Skocic, did not specifically name the opposition club and whether it is domestic or foreign for the practice match. but it is possible that an Iranian team that has not been selected yet, will face the national team. As a result, Team Melli will hold a friendly match between September 12th to 18th before the squad flies to Austria. Also, necessary measures are being taken to hold two friendly matches in Austria. According to Usoli, the contract with one of the rivals of the national team (Uruguay) has been signed by both sides, but the contract for the second game has been finalized. According to the officials of the Senegalese football federation and media, Iran’s second opponent will be Senegal, who will face Iran on 27th September 2022.

The match against Senegal has only been reported by Iranian media while the official Sengalese FF has not confirmed the meeting with Iran.

Progress of Team Melli legionnaires in Europe

As if the shambolic status of football is not bad enough, the disappointing news from Europe has cast a shadow on Team Melli with less than 100 days to go to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.

Nine key Team Melli players are engaged in the European leagues plus a possible few more candidates for selection which Dragan Skocic has been keeping a close look at.

Jahanbakhsh, Azmoun, Taremi, Ansarifard, Hajsafy, Mohammadi, and Sayyadmanesh are the main squad players in addition to Alipour who is one of the strong contenders for selection.
Apart from Mehdi Taremi who has started the new league where he left off scoring a brace in the opening match, the news of the rest has been not encouraging and in many cases quite disappointing.

Alireza Jahanbakhsh, the Captain of Team Melli has been having a tough time since he moved to Feyenoord. His chances of continuing with the famous Dutch club are slim as he is turned from a promising start to a fringe player making cameo appearances for the club. It is safe to say that Jahanbakhsh has never fulfilled his potential with Brighton and now it seems that the story is repeating itself in the Dutch league with Feyenoord.

Sardar Azmoun is a similar story in the Bundesliga. Unlike his brilliant displays and goal-scoring traits in the Russian league, the leading forward of Team Melli is finding life tough in German football as he has been struggling with Leverkusen. It will not be long before Azmoun becomes a bench player with the way things are progressing unless he drastically improves.

Mehdi Taremi has no such problem as his country teammates and seems to be enjoying his time with FC Porto who are leading the Portuguese table with 2 wins out of 2. Despite the disappointment of not being sought by major European Clubs in the transfer market as some of his teammates have succeeded in, Taremi seems to be content with doing his job in Portugal and enhancing his reputation in the process.

Allahyar Sayadmanesh who plays for the second-tier English league club has shown enough promise for the club to buy him outright after a loan spell from Fenerbahce. Hull City is leading the Championship table with two wins out of two. Sayyadmanesh is hoping to make a real impression in order for Dragan Skocic to dislodge Ansarifard and pick the young forward for the World Cup.

Karim Ansarifard’s case is perhaps the most disappointing. The Greek club AEK Athens has been having difficulty finding a buyer for the unwanted Ansarifard. It seems that the much-traveled forward is on the move again after a disappointing in the 2021/22 season where he played 29 matches but scored 4 goals only.

Milad Mohammadi and Ehsan Hajsafy seem to have better fortune with AEK Athens. Although the new season has not started yet, it seems that the club intended to keep the two Iranians in their squad for 2022/23 season.

Amir Abedzadeh is experiencing his second season with the second-tier Spanish league club Ponferradina. Although the season has not started yet, Abedzadeh played well for the team and managed to make 35 appearances for the club.

Saman Ghoddos has been perhaps the most disappointing of the lot playing for Brentford, or at least trying to play. He was an unused substitute in his club’s brilliant performance in destroying Manchester United 4-0 on Saturday. All 5 Brentford were used in the demolishing of Man Utd but Ghoddos was nowhere to be seen. He was not even on the bench for the first match against Leicester City on the opening day of the English Premier League. It seems that his days in Brentford are numbered.

Ali Alipour is another forward lurking in the shadow of the big boys of Team Melli.  The 26 years old forward has changed club this season moving to Gil Vicente in the Portuguese League. He started the new season well by scoring in the first match. Alipour is a real contender for a place on the plane to Doha comes the World Cup.

The youngest players in Team Melli history.

Team Melli prides itself in giving young talents to serve their country and shine international level. In fact, over 60 players made their debut for the National Team of Iran at the age of twenty or less. Some of the young players went on to make successful careers while other younger players did not progress at later stages of their careers.

At the top of the table, lies a footballer for Khuzestan who stormed Iran’s football with dazzling displays in the age groups.  Hossein Kaebi, who hardly spoke Farsi at his younger age, was an eye-catching player who quickly rose through the ranks in Khuzestan and was picked for the U16, U18, and the Omid Team of Iran. Somewhere along the line of progress of his football  Kaebi was also picked to play for Team Melli at the tender age of 16 breaking the long-time record for the youngest player held by the legendary Parviz Ghleechkhani,

Kaebi was born in Ahvaz on 23-Sep-85. He made his International Debut: against Slovakia on 06th Feb 2002 aged 16 years 4 months 14 days. 

Kaebi went on to play 92 times for Team Melli scoring 2 goals.

Lying second in the table is the Legendary Parviz Ghleechkhani at 17 years of age.  Ghleechkhani is by far the most celebrated Iranian footballer in history. No play in Iran has approached the achievement of this footballer. He has lifted the AFC Asian Cup 3 consecutive times. No player in Asia has achieved this. Ghleechkhani also played in three Olympic games, Tokyo 1964, Munich 1972, and Montreal 1976  playing 9 matches in total.

Ghleechkhani also won the Gold Medal in Tehran Asian Games in 1974 and was a Silver medallist at the Asian Games 1966 in Bangkok. He missed the 1978 World Cup because of his political activities rather than his abilities, but that hardly affects the resume of the greatest player in Iranian football who made his debut at the tender age of 17 years 11 months 2 days when he played against East Germany in the Tokyo Olympic Games 1964.  He went on to play 66 times for Iran scoring 14 goals, the most famous of which was the long-range strike against Australia in Azadi.; Amazingly, Ghleechkhani never played as a substitute. He started all of his 66 matches for Team Melli.

The third top player is Allahyar SAYYADMANESH the wonder boy who dazzled at the age group teams. The forward who is currently playing with the English Championship side, Hul City was still amongst the U18 team when he was picked for Team Melli playing. In FIFA U!& World Cup in India, Allahyar shined for Iran and went on to reach the quarter-finals where they were beaten by Spain. Sauuadmanesh scored 3 goals in that tournament.

On June 6th, 2019 in a friendly match against Syria in Azadi stadium, the first match of Team Melli under Marc Wilmots, the Belgian coach introduced the talented Sayyadmanesh as a substitute in the 79th minute. 10 minutes later, he scored in his debut to become one of the youngest Iranian players to score in their debut. Still

Sayyadmanesh was 17 years 11 months 8 days old on his debut and so far has made 7 appearances for Team Melli scoring 1 goal. He has a long career ahead.

List of youngest Team Melli debutants

1- Hossein KAEBI  [16]
2 Parviz GHLEECHKHANI [17]
3-  Allahyar SAYYADMANESH [17]
4- Mehrzad MADANCHI [18]
5- Iman MOBALI [18]

6- Ehsan HAJSAFI [18]
7- Hossein EBRAHIMI [18]
8- Mostafa ARAB [18]
9- Hameed SHIRZADEGAN [18]
10- Hassan NAZARI [18]

11- Ali JABBARI [18]
12- Saeid EZZATOLLAHI [18]
13- Mohammad Ali KARIMI [19]
14- Javad KAZEMIAN [19]
15- Mehdi MAHDAVIKIA [19]

16- Javad NEKOUNAM [19]
17- Arash BORHANI [19]
18- Amir AGHAHOSSEINI [19]
19- Homayoun BEHZADI [19]
20- Mehrab SHAHROUKHI [19]

21- Gholamhossein MAZLOOMI [19]
22- Nasser HEJAZI [19]
23- Hassan ROWSHAN [19]
24- Masih MASIHNIA [19]
25- Alireza KHORSHIDI [19]

Mehdi Taremi asks Vice President of Iran’s son for a tax exemption for his luxury car.

Is there a problem with the involvement of politicians in the luxury car entry permit?

The rebel group of players in the Team Melli camp led by Taremi has issued a public call on their social media pages demanding that the two most critical members of parliament cease interfering in football and Team Melli affairs!!

It is believed that this group has the backing of former FFIRI head Mehdi Taj, who has allegedly promised his followers in Team Melli that he will rid Team Melli of Skocic if he is elected.

While the statement lacks professional ethics and knowledge of how politics works, there is also a contradiction between the words and the deeds of those players, especially those supporting Mehdi Taj. Hassan Kamaranifar, hinted at this issue and demanded that players mind their own business and not interfere in what is not their job.

In yesterday’s statement by the players, parliamentarians and politicians have been asked to take care of people’s livelihood and attend to economic problems and leave football in the hands of football players, but there is no problem if the same MPs authorize funds from the public coffer to the Team Melli Players! Some of these players had recently joined politicians to advance their personal gains. One of them is Mehdi Taremi himself who admitted in his last interview that he held a meeting with the Vice President’s son to obtain a permit for the entry of his luxury cars without paying taxes and customs!!

In the midst of all the economic and livelihood problems of the Iranians, with a large percentage of them earning in a year what Taremi and other European-based players earn in a week, they have the audacity to ask for tax exemption for their luxury cars. It seems that such intervention is fine.

 

 

Team Melli is heating up within. The problems are far from over.

The publication of a statement by a group of Team Melli players headed by Mehdi Tarimi including Karim Ansarifard, Alireza Jahanbakhsh, Ezatollahi, and Ehsan Haj Safi, in connection with the state of the football federation and the national team coach, prompted a sharp reaction by FFIRI through its spokesperson Hassan Kamranifar, the Secretary General of this federation.

“First of all, it is necessary to mention that the football federation is governed completely independently in accordance with international rules and its own charter. At no time this federation has received orders from anyone. There is no interference in the affairs of the federation.  An example of this issue was the rumors about attempts to change the coaching staff of Team Melli, at the end,  you all saw that only the federation management makes such decisions independent of outside elements. Although I don’t want to talk about the elections, I just would like to point out that there is no interference in these issues.”

The Secretary General of the FFIRI said: “We should appreciate the supporting role of the Parliament in approving and allocating government aid, especially for the purpose of supporting the national team and pursuing the rewards of the national team players. When the parliament support allocating government funds to the federations, we also consider it our duty to answer to the parliament in the field of how we spend government grants, this is not intervention, but a supervisory duty of the people’s representatives.”

Kamranifar was asked about an alleged demand by several Team Melli players asking that two Members of Parliament Ghazizadeh Hashemi and Pejmanfar, cease their interference in football. However, Kamranifar did not respond to this statement.

The issue revealed the extent of differences and divisions between Iranian national team players once again which prompted Kamranifar to respond strongly. The General Secretary of the Football Federation said: “The explicit demand of the Federation from the members of the national team is to observe professional ethics and not to interfere in other departments and take a stand on issues that are not within the player’s responsibility. Division and partisan in Team Melli is our red line and we will not tolerate it at all.”

Kamranifar added: “National team players may have concerns, some of them could be legitimate, but these issues should be discussed in their own place and between family members not going public. There is a process for that.  Some actions and behaviors are not acceptable.”

In the end, the Secretary-General said: “The explicit request of the Federation’s Board of Directors is to establish complete discipline and stability in the national team and to stand against any division, split, and marginalization. The federation will fully support the national team with all its might, and of course, we will take action to identify external divisive agents of whom we are fully aware and who are trying to get close to the national team with these measures.”

 

COMMENTS ON FFIRI KAMARANIFAR STATEMENT

The disturbing part of this issue lies in the fact that a struggle is brewing among the members of Team Melli some of whom think that they are better equipped and qualified to run the federation and decide whom to appoint as Head Coach.  Led by Mehdi Taremi, a player who is notorious for lack of discipline and professional ethics, this group is making trouble by recruiting other players like Jahanbakhsh who is a key element in the squad and not the rebel type. FFIRI reaction says much about how much they are concerned hence the strong tone of Kamaranifar. However, besides the pseudo threats, there was nothing to deter the troublemaker.

Many feel that this Federation is standing  on weak ground at this period of time with a lack of legitimate leadership and the coming elections. Those who aim to sit at the top are non-commital to this serious issue. No one wants to take a stand just in case it is the wrong one therefore putting their election in jeopardy. No one is ready to make a decision against the rebels who are supported by outside elements including an influential football agent who would gain much by the change of the Head Coach with expected hefty commision. In the end, the more this conflict and division drag on, the worst it will become.

About the Federation’s independence, Kamaranifar lies up to his teeth. It is not even a secret that FFIRI is run by the government. Kamaranifar’s own admission that funds and grants are being received by the government proves it. The demand by the rebel players and FFIRI that the Parliament stops interfering in football sound quite unreasonable too. After all, the FFIRI and the Players are awarded funds from the public coffers from the money that can be spent on many other projects. What right have they to say to the Parliament “Shut up and Pay Up?”

An organization can only operate independently if it generates its own revenue and has a proper balance sheet. It is not the case with FFIRI which has always pleaded for handouts from the government and thereupon the government would have its own terms and condition. FFIRI and rightly so has to answer to people’s representatives for all the money that is being given to them freely. That is the rationale.

Shams calls for total detachment of FFIRI from government influence.

Hossein Shams, the former head coach of Iran’s national futsal team defined the upcoming elections of the football federation as crucial and demanded full independence of the federation from political institutions.

“In my opinion, the head of the federation should be strong and independent and not a servant of the minister, pressure groups, or the parliamentarians. Don’t let non-football personnel run the federation and do not allow decisions to be made by outsiders whose interests and objectives are not necessarily in tandem with the development and progress of football and futsal. Try to improve football and futsal yourself. He should not allow the interference of the minister, he should not let the parliamentarians and the Article 90 Commission make decisions for football, and he and his team alone should do all the work. “

“This football that we are witnessing now is the end result of continuous interference from outsiders that use all sorts of tactics to influence outcomes and systematically interfere in major decisions. The head of the football federation must be strong enough to withstand such pressure and be independent of the government and parliament. After all, this is the normal practice. This is the most important feature that a federation president should possess.”

Regarding the possible competition between Azizullah Mohammadi, Mehdi Taj, and Mirshad Majdi for the presidency of the Football Federation, Shams said: “I have no idea if they have been vetted and approved yet. It has not yet been confirmed and none of these 3 have presented a plan that one could decide which one to choose. I believe that someone should be elected whose plans are practical and doable. Regrettably, as soon as they win the office, they have achieved their objective which is primarily to win recognition and hold the office of president. “

“History tells us that most of them do not fulfill any of their promises”.

The football federation in Iran has historically suffered interference and pressure from the government with impunity. The fact that the federation is virtually bankrupt and depends a lot on government handouts, pressures the leadership of the FFIRI to abide by the government but that is all done under the table fearing FIFA Sanction.

Despite the constant denials of the Ministry of Sports, it is no secret that the head of FFIRI has to visit the ministry whenever a major decision needs to be taken. The latest episode with Dragan Skocic is one typical example.

The government owns two of the biggest and most popular clubs in Iran Esteghlal and Persepolis and refusing to let go despite decades of promises to do so.

The plight of Omid Team, a reoccurring saga.

A spell that is not going to break approaching the 44th year.

Omid’s national football team is approaching the Olympics without the support of officials and clubs, and the spell of its failures will probably reach 48 years. Iran’s U23 (Omid national football team) started its camp to prepare for the Islamic Solidarity Games in Turkey, and without playing its second preparatory game, the training camp was canceled and everyone was sent home. After months of planning, support, and budgeting, the result of which is that Iran is unable to send the Olympic hopeful team to the Islamic Solidarity games!

This disappointment occurred while many in the corridors of the FFIRI and the media were hopeful that Mehdi Mahdavikia will be able to qualify the Omid Team for the Olympic games in Paris after a 44 years absence. The first sign of trouble for Omid, however, was clear when they astonishingly failed to qualify from the group stage in the AFC U23 championship, and now they are unable to form a team that can compete in a much lesser competition which was supposed to be an important stage preparing or the Olympics.

Under such circumstances, what rights does Iran’s U23 team has to claim a place amongst the elite in the Olympics or be among the top three teams in Asia? Certainly not with the situation that Iranian football, sports authorities and clubs have created for the team. Therefore, it is not far from expected that Iranian football will be absent from the Olympics in 2024. While Asian countries such as Saudi Arabia, which recently won the championship of AFC U23 Cup, are preparing to experience another international event, Iranian football has failed to form a preparatory camp and send it to a tournament.

When Asian football powers such as South Korea, Japan, Australia, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq and emerging powers in this age group including Uzbekistan, Qatar, UAE, etc. do their best planning to participate in an event like the Olympics and gain experience in these competitions, Iran’s Omid national team has started its camp while the players trickled into the U23 national team in the form of drop by drop, and finally, due to the absence of seven key players of this selection, the project of competing in the Islamic solidarity games was shelved by Mahdavikia!


While the Premier League clubs have refused to release their players to the Omid team, the aforementioned games end on August 25, i.e. 5 days after the start of the Premier League.  Gaining experience by playing three good games against teams like Azerbaijan, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia is the exact requirement for the Omid Team that it lacked in these months. Since Mahdavikia took office as Omid’s head coach, this team has only managed one friendly game with Iraq as its preparation match, while other meetings have been against League teams!
If the Iranian national team had the same facilities as countries with power and capital, everyone would definitely agree that it is unfair if such a team does not qualify for the Olympics and international events, and instead, a team that does not have any plans, facilities, and budgets, does so in the best event of this age group.

The actions of the Football Federation and the National Olympic Committee, in this case, are no different from the previous cases of Iran’s Omid team failures, which are aplenty. Iran’s Omid is following the path it followed in the past 44 years. Creating a bunch of excuses and justification, blaming the earth and the sky, and anything in between, until the next Olympics and the next failure.

The reality is the same and hardly changes. Iran’s football lack of strong leadership is the result of decades of incompetent and corrupt managers controlling the affairs. It is whom you know and which gang you belong to that gives these people the opportunity to manage clubs and the federation rather than ability, competency, knowledge or heaven forbids, intelligence. Most of the football federation and club personnel that controls football, have no right to be anywhere near these institutions. The few good ones that remain and work faithfully and purely for the interest of the nation, do not survive the plots and the corrupt lobbies.

ill discipline of Iranian players & coaches! The saga continues.

Iranian club football and to a certain extent, Team Melli, has been facing indiscipline, anarchy, and physical altercations at various levels in recent years. The FFIRI and other responsible organizations have not solved this moral and cultural problem. While the FFIRI Ethics & Disciplinary committee in particular seems to be ill-equipped for the job and proven to be a feeble body that suffers a lack of consistency and at times toothless to what is happening around.

This chaotic lawlessness has been out of control that even the pre-season camps have suffered from it.

Saket Elhami, a controversial figure and one who has faced disciplinary action umpteen times, in the last few years and was frequently banned by ethics and disciplinary committees of FFIRI, once again caused controversy and made headlines. The new head coach of Havadar coaching his team in the Turkish camp had a physical fight with Hamid Motahari, his counterpart in Nasaji Mazandaran, to the amazement of the onlookers, tourists, and athletes present at the Green Park camp in Turkey.

The culture of violence and aggression among the Iranian coaches has replaced the culture of self-control, respect, and chivalry in Iran’s football. Instead of calming the players, some coaches entice them and display a bad example of behavior towards opponent coaches, referees, and even their own fans!  Needless to mention that such poor behavior creeps into Team Melli particularly if the team coach is lenient.

This is all occurring while there are no attempts by the organizations concerned to promote any cultural awareness in the Iranian League clubs. In the season when the clubs will witness the return of the fans into the stadiums, the teams create convulsions and have justified that ill behavior as seeking success by any means possible.

The physical altercation and fist fights were not limited to the Turkish training camps of Havadar and Nassiji clubs, either. Mes Kerman was forced to abandon its friendly match halfway through the game due to the violence and fights between its players and those of Gol Gohar Sirjan. The referee, Amir Arab Baraghi has to use his yellow and red cards many times while in charge of another match between Persepolis and Mes Kerman. And all these are friendly matches …!

It is not clear whether this toxic and volatile atmosphere created in the pre-season by the hands of football players and coaches will turn into a fear of football by fans. Even worst, if the fights on the pitch will creep into the stands with disastrous results.  Unless the intervention of ethics institutions to promote sportsmanship culture will reduce the severity of this amount of bad behavior.

The body which is really responsible, The FFIRI’s Ethics and the Disciplinary Committee needs to be sacked and replaced by competent and fast-acting personnel who do not fear Esteghlal and Perspolis influences and apply heavy sentences on the offenders.

CAS Ruling on Wilmotts case starts a war of words and finger pointing!

After the Supreme Sports Court CAS ruled against Iran’s Football Federation and ordered that the former head coach of Team Melli , Marc Wilmots, be awarded euros 3,300,000 in compensation, Mehdi Taj, the former head of the FFIRI, defended his performance in the case and accused others of shortcomings that lead to this heavy fine.

Mehdi Taj’s reasonings, however, were far from convincing and lacked factual data which prompted rections from the media, legal experts, and members of the parliament. Although Taj failed to clarify the ambiguities in his own defense while at the helm of the federation that recruited the failure Wilmots, it did, however, uncover some insight into how this federation was poorly managed.

Taj’s main defense against the breach of contract is the US sanctions on Iran. The non-payment of Wilmott’s wages was due to his federation’s inability to honor the contract. However,  faced by many questions on the authenticity of his claim, he could only offer one answer to how was it that the previous coach, Carlos Queiroz was getting his wages regularly despite the same US sanction prevailing, by suggestiong that the US Sanctions got worst in the case of Wilmott’s  !!

This issue drew criticism from MP Ehsan Ghazizadeh Hashemi, who claimed that the compensation for the Wilmots case should be paid by the members of the former Board of Directors of FFIRI including Taj as they were accountable and culpable for such public funds wastage and misappropration.

Meanwhile, Hamid Sajjadi, the Minister of Sports and Youth last night, called the case of the former head coach of Team Melli as “Wilmots Tsunami” and said: “What we saw in the report is like the tip of the iceberg that is sticking out of the water.” In our meetings, I named it “Wilmots Tsunami “.

Despite the accountability of Mehdi taj and his responsibility for the failure of Wilmot both on and off the field, Taj managed to sneak in and register his name as a candidate for the new federation board and the Presidency of FFIRI!

The lack of accountability and due process has allowed many corrupt managers to get away with murder in Iran. The reality is that the country is infested with corrupt, inept, and/or incompetent managers who run public organizations to the ground with immunity. FFIRI seems to attractct all the shady elemnts.

Asia’s pathway to the FIFA World Cup 2026 and AFC Asian Cup™ 2027 confirmed

Asia’s pathway to the FIFA World Cup 2026 and AFC Asian Cup™ 2027 confirmed

 
the-afc.com Kuala Lumpur: 

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Executive Committee has approved the 
qualification format for Asia’s Road to the FIFA World Cup 2026 as well as the AFC Asian Cup™ 2027 in preparation for the eight direct spots and a single Intercontinental Playoff slot allocated to the AFC by FIFA following the expansion of the FIFA World Cup 2026 to 48 teams.
The new qualification format has been established after several consultations and dialogue sessions with the AFC Member Associations (MAs), briefings with the AFC Competitions Committee, as well as the Confederation’s key stakeholders.
 
 
It was decided that the FIFA World Cup 2026 qualification tournament will comprise four rounds:
·       Preliminary Joint Qualification Round 1: 22 teams, ranked 26 to 47, will be drawn to face off in a home and away format, where the 11 winners will progress to the Preliminary Joint Qualification Round 2.
 
·       Preliminary Joint Qualification Round 2: 36 teams – teams ranked from 1 to 25 as well as the 11 winners from the first round – will be divided into nine groups of four teams each, who will each compete in a round robin, home and away format, where the top two teams from each group – 18 in total – will advance to the AFC Asian Qualifiers.
 
·       AFC Asian Qualifiers: Subsequently, the 18 teams, who also qualify automatically for the AFC Asian Cup™ 2027, will be divided into three groups of six teams each, competing in a round robin, home and away format, with the top two teams from each group – six in total – qualifying directly to the FIFA World Cup 2026.
 
·       Asian Playoff: The final round will consist of the third and fourth-placed teams from all groups of the AFC Asian Qualifiers – six teams in total. The six teams will be drawn into two groups of three teams each, competing in a single round-robin format.
 
·       The two first-placed teams from the Asian Playoff groups will advance to the FIFA World Cup 2026. The second-placed teams from both groups will compete in a playoff match to determine the side that will represent the AFC in the Intercontinental Playoff.
 
The AFC Asian Cup™ 2027 Qualifiers will continue from the Preliminary Joint Qualification Round 1 and Round 2, in parallel with the FIFA World Cup 2026 qualification competition:
 
·       AFC Asian Cup™ Qualifiers Playoff: The 10 losing teams from the Preliminary Joint Qualification Round 1 will be drawn to compete in a home and away format, where the five winners will advance to the AFC Asian Cup™ Qualifiers Final Round.
 
·       AFC Asian Cup™ Qualifiers Final Round: 24 teams in total – 1 best ranked losing team from the Preliminary Joint Qualification Round 1, 18 third and fourth-placed teams from each group of the Preliminary Joint Qualification Round 2, and the five winners from the AFC Asian Cup™ Qualifiers Playoff – will be divided into six groups of four teams each, where only the first placed team of each group will qualify to the AFC Asian Cup™ 2027.
The format above is based on the entry of all 47 Member Associations and is subject to change depending on the final number of entries.
 
Additionally, the AFC Executive Committee also approved the proposal of the competitions’ (national teams, futsal and beach soccer) calendar for 2023/2024 which is tabled below and at the same time, provided the Administration with the mandate to alter the Match Days (MD) where necessary.
 
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