2026 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC fourth round

2026 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC fourth round
Tournament details
Host countriesQatar
Saudi Arabia
Dates8–14 October 2025
Teams6 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played6
Goals scored12 (2 per match)
Attendance150,967 (25,161 per match)
Top scorer(s)Indonesia Kevin Diks
Saudi Arabia Firas Al-Buraikan
(2 goals each)
← 2022
2030 →

The fourth round of AFC matches for the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification were played in October 2025.[1]

Format

The third-place and fourth-place teams from the third round were divided into two groups of three teams. Each group played a round-robin tournament at a centralized venue.[2] The winners of each group qualified directly for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, while the runners-up advanced to the fifth round.[3]

On 13 June 2025, AFC confirmed Qatar and Saudi Arabia as the host countries.[4] The hosts were selected following a bidding process involving prospective teams during the third round.[5] The decision to hold the centralised playoff format in Qatar and Saudi Arabia was met with criticism from Indonesia, Iraq, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates over concerns of competitive advantage.[6]

Qualified teams

The following teams finished third or fourth in their respective third round groups:

Draw

The fourth round draw took place on 17 July 2025 at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.[7][8][9][10]

The seeding for the draw was based on a special release of the FIFA Men's World Rankings for Asian teams on 13 June 2025 (shown in parentheses below).[10]

Pot 1 Pot 2 Pot 3
  1.  Qatar (53)
  2.  Saudi Arabia (58)
  1.  Oman (79)
  2.  Indonesia (118)

Note: Bold indicates team qualified for the World Cup. Italics indicates the team advanced to the fifth round.

Schedule

The competition schedule was as follows:[1]

Matchday Date Fixtures
Matchday 1 8 October 2025 3 v 1
Matchday 2 11 October 2025 2 v 3
Matchday 3 14 October 2025 1 v 2

Group A

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification Qatar United Arab Emirates Oman
1  Qatar (H) 2 1 1 0 2 1 +1 4 2026 FIFA World Cup — 2–1 —
2  United Arab Emirates 2 1 0 1 3 3 0 3 Fifth round — — 2–1
3  Oman 2 0 1 1 1 2 −1 1 0–0 — —
Source: AFC
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
(H) Hosts
Oman 0–0 Qatar
Report (FIFA)
Report (AFC)
Attendance: 12,975
Referee: Yusuke Araki (Japan)
United Arab Emirates 2–1 Oman
 Report (FIFA)
Report (AFC)
Attendance: 8,817
Qatar 2–1 United Arab Emirates
 Report (FIFA)
Report (AFC)
Attendance: 13,038
Referee: Ilgiz Tantashev (Uzbekistan)

Group B

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification Saudi Arabia Iraq Indonesia
1  Saudi Arabia (H) 2 1 1 0 3 2 +1 4 2026 FIFA World Cup — 0–0 —
2  Iraq 2 1 1 0 1 0 +1 4 Fifth round — — 1–0
3  Indonesia 2 0 0 2 2 4 −2 0 2–3 — —
Source: AFC
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
(H) Hosts
Indonesia 2–3 Saudi Arabia
 Report (FIFA)
Report (AFC)
Attendance: 40,634
Referee: Ahmed Al-Ali (Kuwait)
Iraq 1–0 Indonesia
 Report (FIFA)
Report (AFC)
Attendance: 14,687
Referee: Ma Ning (China)
Saudi Arabia 0–0 Iraq
Report (FIFA)
Report (AFC)
Attendance: 60,816

Goalscorers

There were 12 goals scored in 6 matches, for an average of 2 goals per match.

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

Discipline

A player was automatically suspended for the next match for the following infractions:[11]

  • Receiving a red card (red card suspensions may be extended for serious infractions)
  • Receiving two yellow cards in two different matches (yellow card suspensions are carried forward to further qualification rounds, but not the finals or any other future international matches)

The following suspensions were served during the fourth round:[12]

Team Player Infraction(s) Suspended for match(es)
 Iraq Ali Al-Hamadi Red card vs South Korea (5 June 2025) vs Indonesia (11 October 2025)
 Saudi Arabia Mohamed Kanno Yellow card Yellow-red card vs Indonesia (8 October 2025) vs Iraq (14 October 2025)
 Iraq Zaid Tahseen Yellow card Yellow-red card vs Indonesia (11 October 2025) vs Saudi Arabia (14 October 2025)

References

  1. ^ a b "AFC Competitions Calendar (Jul 2025 - Jun 2026)" (PDF). the-AFC.com. Asian Football Confederation. 11 April 2025. Retrieved 4 May 2025.
  2. ^ "AFC Competitions Committee approves key decisions on reformatted competitions". Asian Football Confederation. 1 July 2023. Retrieved 11 June 2025.
  3. ^ "Asia's pathway to the FIFA World Cup 2026 and AFC Asian Cup 2027 confirmed". the-AFC.com. Asian Football Confederation. 1 August 2022. Retrieved 28 March 2024.
  4. ^ "Hosts of AFC Asian Qualifiers – Road to 26 Playoffs confirmed". AFC. 13 June 2025. Retrieved 13 June 2025.
  5. ^ "اتحاد الكرة ينفي عدم التقدم لاستضافة الملحق ويحذر من استهداف للمنتخب" [The Football Association denies not bidding to host the play-off and warns against targeting the national team]. Baghdad Today News (in Arabic). 16 June 2025. Retrieved 10 July 2025.
  6. ^ Azharie, Farah (14 June 2025). "AFC under fire over Saudi, Qatar hosting World Cup qualifiers". New Straits Times. Retrieved 22 June 2025.
  7. ^ "Football Calendar". the-AFC.com. Asian Football Confederation. Retrieved 5 June 2025.
  8. ^ Mendola, Nicholas (11 June 2025). "Asian (AFC) 2026 World Cup qualifying schedule, scores, results, table". nbcsports.com. NBC Sports. Retrieved 11 June 2025.
  9. ^ "The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) announced on June 13, 2025, that Qatar and Saudi Arabia have been confirmed as the hosts for the upcoming AFC Asian Qualifiers(TM) – Road to 26 Playoffs ..." Facebook. Seasia.co. 14 June 2025. Retrieved 20 June 2025.
  10. ^ a b "Road to 26 Playoffs draw to set stage for remaining contenders". the-AFC.com. Asian Football Confederation. 11 July 2025. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  11. ^ "Regulations: FIFA World Cup 2026 Preliminary Competition" (PDF). FIFA. June 2023. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  12. ^ "DISCIPLINARY OVERVIEW FIFA World Cup 26 Qualifiers" (PDF). FIFA. Retrieved 17 September 2025.
allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification_%E2%80%93_AFC_fourth_round