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The 2022 Qatar world cup was a magical tournament, with highlights including French forward Kylian Mbappe’s final hat-trick, Croatian goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic’s heroics against Brazil, Morocco’s fairy tale run, and Messi’s first world cup triumph. But countries are already looking towards the 2026 tournament, and eyeing a coveted place in the world’s most prestigious sporting event.
Indian fans are increasingly optimistic about their country’s chances of qualifying, with good performances in the Hero Intercontinental Cup and the victory in the SAFF championship on Tuesday night. From 2026, Asia will have eight direct spots in the world cup, double from four in the 2022 tournament. To reach one of the eight guaranteed spots, the country has to compete and perform in the AFC Asian Qualifiers.
The first step in the Qualifiers is to draw all eligible countries into four pots based on their current world ranking. Countries in Pots 1 to 3 will proceed directly into the second round of qualifiers, while Pot 4 proceeds to the first round.
Going into the SAFF championship finals, India were ranked last in Pot 2 and were desperately hoping to hold on to their spot. This is because Pot 2 countries will only have to face one Pot 1 country during the second qualifying round group phase. All other Pot 2 countries will be avoided. This means a significantly easier group stage fixture list than Pot 3 countries (who have to face both a Pot 1 and a Pot 2 team in their groups).
In order for India to remain in Pot 2, the SAFF championship final match against Kuwait was critically important. If India lost the match within the regulated time, then the country would have fallen into Pot 3, dealing a massive blow to their world cup dreams.
However, with their victory, the national team has confirmed their place as the last-seeded team in Pot 2, ahead of Lebanon, and kept their 2026 world cup dream alive.
Teams with a good enough performance in Round 3 of the qualifiers can reach one of the guaranteed spots immediately, which makes having an easier Round 2 group all the more important as avoiding rounds 4 and 5, both of which feature many more matches.
India have never played in a FIFA world cup, while the country qualified in 1950 through a technicality, the Indian FA declined participation by citing a number of reasons such as a lack of practice time, cost of travel, and prioritization of the Olympics. The growth of the National team and the domestic league, however, are cause for optimism for Indian fans who will no doubt look forward to the Blue Tigers representing them on the biggest possible stage.
