World Cup: winner teams go straight to Asia’s final qualifying round

The procedure in the Asian preliminaries for the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia has changed. In the past, teams had to go through three rounds before the region’s final qualifying round. Now, they will have two qualifying rounds before the final one. Instead, the final round will be a competition of 12 teams, up by two.

All 40 teams including six teams that passed the first round are split into eight groups for the second round, with the eight group winners and four best second placed teams advancing to Asia`s final FIFA World Cup qualifying round.

In the final qualifying round, the teams will be split into two groups to fight for a ticket to Russia. Only two top teams in the FIFA World Ranking will have seeds and the remaining 10 teams will be grouped in a draw. The group winners and runner-up teams will advance to Russia and third placed teams will have a playoff and the winner will be matched by the fifth-ranked team in South America for a ticket to Russia.

In the 2014 Brazil World Cup, Korea had six matches in three rounds and eight matches in Asia’s final qualifying round. It will play eight matches in two rounds and ten matches in the final qualifying round this time.

elegant@donga.com