KUALA LUMPUR: Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been awarded the hosting rights for the fourth round of Asia’s 2026 World Cup preliminaries in October, the Asian Football Confederation said on Friday.

The pair have reached the next phase of the continent’s qualifiers and will be joined by Iraq, Oman, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates in the draw, which takes place on July 17.

The decision to award the rights to Saudi Arabia and Qatar comes after Iraq confirmed earlier this week that they had bid to host one of the groups.

Teams will be divided into two groups of three nations and the winners of each will join Japan, Australia, Iran, Uzbekistan, South Korea and Jordan in qualifying for the newly-expanded 48-nation finals from the continental preliminaries.

They will battle each other in a centralised format from Oct 8 to 14, 2025, the AFC said in a statement.

The runners-up in each group will play two matches on November 13 and 18, with the winners of that clash featuring in an intercontinental playoff tournament in March to determine the two remaining World Cup spots.

The six competing nations qualified for the fourth phase by finishing either third or fourth in their respective groups in the third round of qualifying, which was completed on Tuesday.

Asian federations had requested that the Asian playoff matches be held on neutral ground.

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2025