https://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/who-we-are/news/organising-committee-meets-in-zurich says: "FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 preliminary competition calendar: The AFC will be the first confederation to start the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 preliminary competition, with the action scheduled to begin in June 2019. "
If the World Cup 2022 increases to 48 teams, with AFC receiving 8.5 spots, I would assume the qualification path would change from the current 3 round process.
"The 2023 AFC Asian Cup / 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifications draw for Asia will be made on April 17th at the AFC Headquarters in Kuala Lumpur." http://www.uaefa.ae/#/news/27546
Not necessarily. They can do the two-legged ties to go down from 46 to 40 and then run the 8 group stages of 5 teams each, with the top 2 advancing to 4 groups of 4, top 2 qualify for the WC and then just have the top finishing third place team go the the inter-confederational playoff.
The Preliminary Round 1 draw will be made on 17th April. The FIFA rankings for March 2019 are being taken into account, with the bottom 12 teams contesting in the round in home-away fixtures. Seeded teams: Malaysia, Cambodia, Macau, Laos, Bhutan, Mongolia Unseeded teams: Bangladesh, Guam, Brunei, Timor-Leste, Pakistan, Sri Lanka
1st round (6 and 11 June 2019) Mongolia - Brunei Macau - Sri Lanka Laos - Bangladesh Malaysia - Timor-Leste Cambodia - Pakistan Bhutan - Guam
Macau's 23 men squad list for the two matches against Sri Lanka. As Macau Stadium is under renovation (due to Macau Sports Bureau's stupidity), they have to play their home match at neighbouring Zhuhai Sports Centre on 6 June. The match will be free admission but tickets must be obtained beforehand from Macau FA's office. Hopefully they have tickets available at the stadium so Zhuhai citizens can attend as well. It must be the only time ever in Zhuhai's history that it is hosting a FIFA World Cup qualifier.
FT: Malaysia 7:1 Timor Leste I guess that is rather conclusive. Malaysia can play the second match with their reserves.
Malaysia/Timor is really the only matchup that's already been decided. Should be some really good games on June 11
Random Brazilians are no longer allowed to pop up and represent Timor-Leste anymore, unfortunately for them. Sri Lanka and Pakistan were unlucky not to score any goals so they are not out of this yet, while I think Guam's heat at sea level will be too much for Bhutan. I've seen it happen to them when they played in Maldives, where their players simply tailed off in the second half and conceded a ton of goals.
Macau won the first leg at "home" (home match played in Zhuhai, China), but the Macau FA is going to withdraw the world cup qualifiers due to safety concern in Sri Lanka and the Sri Lanka FA rejected to move the 2nd leg in neutral ground, without consulting any players' opinion. The national team players have written the following disclaimers. They will no longer represent the national team if Macau FA does not accept their request to play the 2nd leg as scheduled. WHAT A SHAME FOR THE MFA OFFICIALS! ____ From Macau National Team players: We, players of Macau National Team hereby express our feelings and requests. We feel that Macau Football has not been respected in previous years and finally now we have the chance to give our Macau citizens, fans, family and friends a reason to be proud of Macau National team. We are closer then ever to reach our main goal and we fought for too long to just let it slip between our hands. It’s not guaranteed that we will go thought to the next stage, but we want to go and fight the 90 minutes left to try and achieve our goal. For Macau for us and for the future generations this could be an important step ahead. The list of players below want to go to Sri Lanka and play the 2ng leg and demand that MFA and RAEM government authorities accepts and works on a solution to make it happen. If they do not accept and approve our request, the players below are as of now no longer available to represent Macau National Team. National Team Players: 1.Kong Cheng Hou 2. Nicholas Torrao 3. Lam Ngai Tong 4.Chan Pak chun 5.Ho Man Fai 6.Lei keng pan 7.Lei Ka Him 8.kam chi hou 9.U wai chon 10. Fong Chi Hang 11.SOARES 12.Lam ka pou 13. Chan Man 14. Ng Wa Keng 15. Ng Wa Seng 16.Ho Man Hou 17.WONG VERNON 18. Pang Chi Hang 19.Ho Ka Seng 20. Lam Ka Seng 21.Cheong Hoi San 22.Leong Ka Hang 23. Filipe Duarte 24.Lei Chi Kin U23 players: 1.Sou Chit 2.Cheng Ka Chon 3.Wong Tek Ka 4.Lei Hou In 5.Jorge Marcelo Vitorino 6.Lei Chan Tou 7.Wan Tin Iao 8.Tai Lok In 9. Si Tou Seng Hang 10.HEILONG WONG 11.Ip Ieong U18 players: 1.Lok Weng Hang 2.chan hang kit 3.Wong Pou Chon 4.Cheang KA Lok 5.KONG U CHON 6.Sio Rong Rui 7. Ng Chi Hou 8. Man Chak Nam 9.Lou Chon Hei 10.Chan Chak Meng 11.Ku Koi Fai 12.Wong Weng Hei 13.Ieong lek Hang
https://www.facebook.com/FFOSL/posts/693617461059345/ Response from the Sri Lanka FF's General Secretary.
https://www.exmoo.com/article/11035...hOMmJEEj5Vz6ib_4srfJQr3KumjljbQmPq8_uyJLStGnw Macau FA's response is that they cannot obtain insurance for the players and officials so they are not sending the team. That is actually a valid reason but I am not sure they communicated it to the AFC or Sri Lanka officials. Macau FA is notorious for their lack of communications. I remember South China FC once had a similar problem with insurance and they got their AFC Cup match moved to a another venue as a result.
So Macau have officially withdrawn, meaning Sri Lanka are most definitely through to Round 2. Is it just me, or does anyone else think there is something fishy going on behind the scenes? Macau FA knew they would have to travel to Sri Lanka ever since the draw, why did they wait until the last moment to kick up a fuss?
Even the Macau players suspect there is something fishy going on. The Macau FA chose to withhold the information about NOT traveling to Sri Lanka from the players until it was way too late for them to do something about it. Add to that they gave no help to Benfica de Macau any help to enter this year's AFC Cup, causing club president Duarte Alves to rant about Macau FA (https://macaudailytimes.com.mo/football-after-stunning-debut-benfica-barred-from-afc-again.html), it is quite clear they are not keen for club or country to join international football. Some people say China do not want Macau to play in the international arena anymore.
My problem with the format is that it unnecessarily ends all competitive football for these teams way too early. By all means cull the worst six teams from World Cup qualification- but what is the point of shutting them out of qualifiers for the Asian Cup on the basis of two games? I think an Asian Nations' League is urgently needed to improve the quality of play and foster competition. My proposal would be to create four leagues of 10-12 teams after the Second Round of World Cup qualification is over. The Top 12 teams go on to play in the final phase of WCQ and the top two in each group can playoff once qualifying is over. The winner of that playoff would be winner of the Nations League. Here's how it would look using dates and teams from the 2018 edition. You could promote the top two in each group and relegate the bottom two (not sure relegation would be in play for League A with current schedule/format). Nations League Dates Matchday 1: September 2015 Matchday 10: September 2017 Start of Standalone ACQ: Matchday 1: October 2017 (Playoff Round) Matchday 2: October 2017 (Playoff Round) Matchday 1: November 2017 Matchday 2: November 2017 Matchday 3: March 2018 Matchday 4: March 2018 Matchday 5: May/June 2018 Matchday 6: September 2018 Nations League Playoffs (hosted in AC Host Country) October 2018 Asian Cup Finals Draw October 2018 League A/3rd Round WCQ Group 1 1. Iran 2. Korea Republic 3. Syria 4. Uzbekistan 5. China 6. Qatar Group 2 1. Japan 2. Saudi Arabia 3. Australia 4. UAE 5. Iraq 6. Thailand League B Group 1: 1. North Korea 2. Oman 3. Kyrgyzstan 4. Palestine 5. Hong Kong 6. Kuwait (w) Group 2. 1. Jordan 2. Lebanon 3. Turkmenistan 4. Vietnam 5. Singapore 6. Philippines League C: Group 1: 1. Malaysia 2. Tajikistan 3. Maldives 4. Guam 5. Afghanistan 6. India Group 2. 1.Myanmar 2. Bahrain 3. Yemen 4. Bangladesh 5. Laos 6. India League D: Group 1: 1. Timor Leste 2. Cambodia 3. Bhutan 4. Pakistan 5. Macau Group 2. 1. Indonesia 2. Nepal 3. Mongolia 4. Brunei 5. Sri Lanka
That's not good. I feel for the Macau players and coaching staff. It appears that their FA has completely different aspirations to them. But even if they do join the Chinese league system, it doesn't necessarily mean the end of Macau FA. They can do something similar to what Brunei are doing and maintain a national team. Do China really see the Macau national team as a direct threat to their own ambitions?