Asia is set to start its 2026 World Cup journey, giving the lower-ranked teams such as Afghanistan, Bhutan and Pakistan a chance to grab some attention and secure matches against soccer’s continental heavyweights.
The Asian Football Confederation’s 20 lowest-ranked teams compete in two-leg, home-and-away series on Thursday and next Tuesday, with the 10 winners advancing to the second round of the qualifying group stage.
Afghanistan, ranked 158th, takes on No. 183 Mongolia. Getting to the next stage, where each team will have six games, is not just valuable financially but also in terms of experience.
“It’s very important for us to get past Mongolia into the second round as we would play India, Kuwait and Qatar,” Afghanistan coach Abdullah Al-Mutairi told The Associated Press. “We need as many games as possible, and these are strong teams, but we have the quality to show what we can do.”
With little in the way of domestic soccer in Afghanistan, Al-Mutairi has tapped into the country’s diaspora and selected talent based in Europe, Asia and Australia to fill the national team’s roster.
“We have six or seven local players and we want more in the future but there has not been a regular league in Afghanistan for two years,” Al-Mutairi added. “Most come from Europe and Asia such as Singapore, India, Indonesia, Georgia, England and Sweden.”
Due to the security situation in Kabul, Afghanistan will play its home game against Mongolia in neighboring Tajikistan. “The weather is similar to Europe and we hope that the Afghan people living there will come and support us,” Al-Mutairi said.
Yemen, ranked 156th, is another team unable to play on home soil and will take on Sri Lanka in Saudi Arabia. Sri Lanka is Asian football’s lowest-ranked nation at No. 202 on FIFA’s global list of 207 members. The Sri Lankans are, however, happy to play at all after FIFA lifted a ban in August that was imposed in January for government interference in the running of the federation.
