Recently, the AFC announced that Qatar and Saudi Arabia are the two hosts of the two groups in the 4th qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup. This surprised the teams participating in this qualifying round.
Indonesia, UAE, Iraq, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are the 6 teams participating in the 4th qualifying round of the Asian region to compete for the remaining two official tickets to the 2026 World Cup. The AFC and FIFA have announced that the teams will compete at a neutral location. Therefore, this latest decision caused many strong reactions.
The announcement of the selection of the host of the 4th qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup was posted on the AFC homepage and received high interaction. In the comments, many fans expressed their dissatisfaction with this decision of the AFC because the teams that have won the group stage will have many home advantage to seek a place in the 2026 World Cup.
In recent days, international media have continuously reported that Saudi Arabia and Qatar will become the host of the two groups in the 4th qualifying round. Of course, they will enjoy a huge advantage when playing at home.
Therefore, the Indonesian and Iranian Football Federations have taken a step to request FIFA and AFC to be transparent in selecting the host country for the 4th qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup.
At the same time, both federations also submitted applications to host 1 of the 2 groups based on a time frame and clear regulations. However, despite the objections of these teams, the AFC has officially chosen Qatar and Saudi Arabia as the host cities of the two groups.
The 4th qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup in Asia will take place in three matches on October 8, 11 and 14 respectively. The draw took place on July 17 in Japan but there were no specific criteria for selecting seeds.
