Football: Great chance for Indian football team to qualify for 2026 World Cup. How Team India Can Qualify?: We are the best in hockey and cricket, but we fall far short in football, which is hugely popular around the world. India had the opportunity to take part in the 1950 FIFA World Cup, which was hosted in Brazil. but I didn’t play. The Indian football team hasn’t made it to the World Cup once other than that one occasion. However, Indian football’s storyline is currently evolving.
The Indian Super League (ISL) entered the country’s football scene in 2014, progressively altering it. Young players with talent are emerging. Prior to it, only the names of Sunil Chhetri and Baichung Butia were mentioned. Currently, there are numerous gifted athletes, like Gurpreet Singh Sandhu (keeper), Samad, Sandish Jhingan, Udanta Singh, and Listo.
Golden chance for India to qualify for 2026 World Cup
The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be jointly hosted by North American countries USA, Canada, and Mexico. 32 countries participated in the 2022 Football World Cup to be held in Qatar. But this time the number of teams has increased. 48 teams are participating. As in cricket, there is no qualification for the World Cup based on rankings. Each time all the teams have to play in qualifying tournaments for two years. There are lots of places for different federations on different continents. This time, due to the increase in the number of teams, 8 slots were given to Asia. This number is 5 in the 2022 World Cup. Football fans in the country are hopeful that the number of slots has increased and our team has become stronger.
How Team India Can Qualify?
From October 12 of this year to November 2025, the qualifying competitions will take place. There will be five rounds in all. Among Asian football teams, India is ranked number 18. As a result, India automatically qualified for the next round of qualifying. The second round will feature 36 teams in total. They are split up into 9 groups, each with 4 teams. The drawing for this will take place on the 27th of this month. Two games will be played between each team and the other three teams in its group. The top two teams from each group will then advance to the third round.
The 18 teams that made it through to the third round will then be split into three groups of six teams each. The remaining five teams will be faced by each team in its group twice (at home and away). The top two teams from each group will then advance directly to the FIFA World Cup 2026. Six of the teams who place third and fourth will advance to the fourth round. There will be two groups of three teams each made up of these six teams.
At neutral sites, each team will also compete in games against two other members of its group. Both teams’ group winners (top teams) will advance to the World Cup. The fifth round will feature the two teams that placed second in each of the groups. The two clubs will face off in two games. The victor advances to the Inter-Confederation playoff. They must compete in tournaments there against groups from different continental football associations. The winning team earns a spot in the World Cup. However, India would have to win the World Cup in the fourth round itself if it had to qualify for the tournament.
Presently Japan, South Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Qatar are the strongest teams in Asia. If India wants to qualify for the World Cup, it should not be in the same group with these teams. It will not be too difficult for India to reach the third round. But in the third round, India will have to compete against at least one of the three big teams namely Japan, Iran, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. We can get an idea from the draw on 27th July.
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