2022 FIFA World Cup qualification (AFC)


The Asian section of the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification acts as qualifiers for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, to be held in Qatar, for national teams which are members of the Asian Football Confederation. Apart from Qatar, who qualified automatically as hosts, a total of 4.5 slots in the final tournament are available for AFC teams.
The qualification process involves four rounds, where the first two rounds double as the qualification for the 2023 AFC Asian Cup. Despite qualifying as hosts, Qatar are participating in these first two rounds to seek Asian Cup qualification. The first two rounds also act as qualifiers for the 2020 AFC Solidarity Cup.

Format

The qualification structure is as follows:
All 46 FIFA-affiliated nations from the AFC entered qualification. The FIFA World Rankings of April 2019 were used to determine which nations would compete in the first round. For seeding in the second round and third round draws, the most recent FIFA Rankings prior to those draws will be used.
Due to the joint format of the World Cup and Asian Cup qualifiers, both Qatar and China will also enter the second round of the qualifiers.
Timor-Leste was banned from participating in the Asian Cup qualification after being found to have fielded a total of 12 ineligible players in 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification matches among other competitions. However, as FIFA did not ban them from the World Cup qualifiers, Timor-Leste was allowed to enter the competition, but was ineligible to qualify for the Asian Cup.
Bye to the second round
Competing in first round

Schedule

The schedule of the competition is expected to be as follows, according to the FIFA International Match Calendar.
On 9 March 2020, FIFA and AFC announced that the second round matches on matchdays 7–10 due to take place in March and June 2020 were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the new dates to be confirmed. However, subject to approval by FIFA and AFC, and agreement of both member associations, the matches may be played as scheduled provided that the safety of all individuals involved meets the required standards. On 5 June 2020, AFC confirmed that Matchdays 7 and 8 were scheduled to take place on 8 and 13 October respectively while Matchdays 9 and 10 were scheduled to kick off on 12 and 17 November.
On 25 June 2020, FIFA announced that the inter-confederation play-offs, originally scheduled to be played in March 2022, were moved to June 2022.

First round

The draw for the first round was held on 17 April 2019 at 11:00 MST, at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Second round

The draw for the second round was held on 17 July 2019 at 17:00 MST, at AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Group G

Group H

Ranking of runner-up teams

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.

Fourth round

The two third-placed teams in each group from the third round will play against each other home-and-away over two legs to determine which team advances to the inter-confederation play-offs.

Inter-confederation play-offs

The inter-confederation play-offs will be determined by another draw to be held at a later date. They are scheduled to be played in June 2022.

Qualified teams

The following teams from AFC qualified for the final tournament.
TeamQualified asQualified onPrevious appearances in FIFA World Cup1
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Top goalscorers

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