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There is plenty to look forward to as a football fan in India today with the country gearing up to find out whom their teams will be grouped with in the draw for the 2023 Asian Games and the 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers. While the draw for the 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers will be held at 1:30 PM Indian Standard Time, the one for the Asian Games football segment will be held at 1:35 PM Indian Standard Time.
The draw for the first and second rounds of qualifying for the 2026 FIFA World Cup (USA, Mexico, Canada) and the 2027 AFC Asian Cup (Saudi Arabia) will be held at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia today.
For the unversed, the 2026 edition of the World Cup will be a 48-team affair. This means that forty-five AFC-affiliated nations will have the chance to qualify for the tournament. The qualification process will be played over five rounds while the first two will also double up as the AFC Asian Cup qualifiers.
India is ranked in the eighteenth position in Asia, and this has confirmed their spot in Pot 2 of the World Cup Qualifiers. This will allow the Blue Tigers to avoid meeting any of the teams ranked between 10 to 17 in Asia given that they are the lowest-ranked side in their Pot. They can, however, draw one of the top eight teams in Pot 1. Uzbekistan, China, Jordan, Bahrain, Syria, Vietnam, Palestine and Kyrgyzstan make up the rest of Pot 2 along with India.
In other news, the draw for the football segment of the upcoming Asian Games, to be held in Hangzhou, China from 23 September will also be held today, at 1:35 PM Indian Standard Time. After getting the green signal from the Ministry of Sports on Wednesday, the national team has now been cleared to participate in the Games. Earlier, they were refused participation by the government as they were not among the top eight ranked teams in Asia.
When and where to follow both the draws
The news that most Indian football supporters will be keen on knowing is where to watch the live draw for both the Asian Games and World Cup Qualifiers. We can confirm that the draw for AFC’s FIFA World Cup qualifiers can be streamed live on AFC Asian Cup’s Youtube channel today.
However, the draw for the Asian Games football segment will be streamed on the Hotpot Sports Youtube channel. All football supporters in the country will be on tenterhooks waiting to find out their team's opponents in either competition. It will be an interesting ride for sure, with an exciting afternoon of draws coming our way.
