Sports Desk :
The Asia Zone qualifiers (first round) of the World Cup Football 2018 begins tomorrow (Thursday) in six different venues. Bangladesh have been directly placed in the second round based on the latest FIFA ranking.
The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) section of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification will act as qualifiers for the 2018 FIFA World Cup to be held in Russia, and the 2019 AFC Asian Cup to be held in UAE.
On 16 April 2014, the AFC Executive Committee approved a proposal to merge the preliminary qualification rounds of the FIFA World Cup and the AFC Asian Cup, which will be expanded to 24 teams starting in 2019. The qualification structure is as follows:
First round: A total of 12 teams (teams ranked 35-46) will play two legs home and away basis on March 12 and 17. The fixture is: India V Nepal, Yemen V Pakistan, Timor-Leste V Mongolia, Cambodia V Macau of China, Chinese Taipei V Brunei and Sri Lanka V Bhuran.
Second round: A total of 40 teams (teams ranked 1-34 and six first round winners) will be divided into eight groups of five to play home-and-away round-robin matches, where the eight group winners and the four best group runners-up will advance to the third round of FIFA World Cup qualification as well as qualify for the AFC Asian Cup finals.
Third round: The 12 teams (an increase from 10 for 2014) will be divided into two groups of six to play home-and-away round-robin matches. Assuming the same number of slots allocated to the AFC as the previous World Cup (4.5 berths), the top two teams of each group will qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, and the two third-placed teams will advance to the fourth round.
Fourth round (if required, dependent upon the allocation of places to the AFC at the 2018 FIFA World Cup): 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 will advance to the inter-confederation play-offs
The next best 24 teams eliminated from World Cup qualification in the second round will compete in the third round of 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification (which will be separate from the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification for AFC), where they are divided into six groups of four and compete for the remaining slots of the 2019 AFC Asian Cup.
All 46 FIFA-affiliated nations from the AFC entered qualification. In order to determine which nations would compete in the first round and which nations would receive a bye through to the second round, the FIFA World Rankings of January 2015 were used (shown in parentheses), as that was the latest published rankings prior to the first round draw. The FIFA Rankings of January 2015 were also used for seeding of the first round draw; however, for seeding in the second round and third round draws, the most recent FIFA Rankings prior to those draws will be used.
The draw for the first round was held on 10 February 2015, at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The draw for the second round will be held on 14 April 2015 at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
