The World Cup preliminaries, referred to as "World Cup preliminaries", are the intercontinental knockout matches in which FIFA registered member countries (regions) participate in the World Cup. They will be held in six regions: Europe, South America, Central and North America and the Caribbean, Asia, Africa and Oceania.
On June 5438+ 10, 2023, the UEFA Executive Committee held a meeting in Switzerland, and several European events will be reorganized. The European preliminaries and world preliminaries will be changed from 18 to 12 teams, with 4 or 5 teams in each group. The competition system of European Cup qualifiers and World Cup European qualifiers will be more unified, and teams will be divided into 12 groups, with 4 or 5 teams in each group, which will increase the uncertainty of the competition.
Tournament rules:
201April 16, at the meeting of the AFC executive Committee, the new competition system of Russia's 20 18 Asian World Cup was formally adopted. The biggest change is that in the past, the top ten in the final stage of Asian regional qualifiers will become 12, so that there will be no team bye in every round and the game will become more fair.
In addition, the number of teams participating in the final stage of the 20 19 Asian Cup will be increased from 16 to 24, and the qualifiers for the second half of the World Cup in Russia will be merged with those for the 20 19 Asian Cup. According to the latest competition system, the Asian preliminaries of the 20 18 World Cup in Russia will be divided into three stages.