Saudi Arabia’s path to 2026 World Cup starts in qualifying group with Jordan and Tajikistan

KUALA LUMPUR: Saudi Arabia’s path to the 2026 World Cup in North America will start in a first qualifying group with neighboring Jordan, Tajikistan, and either Cambodia or Pakistan. Players in the Saudi national team — which upset eventual champion Argentina 2-1 to open last year’s tournament in Qatar — will prepare for the next edition training and playing with a slew of global stars like Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema lured to the multi-billion dollar project that the Saudi league has become.

Saudi Arabia’s extra interest in World Cup qualifying is that the top two teams in each of the nine four-team groups also goes direct to the 2027 Asian Cup, a tournament that will be hosted in the kingdom. None of Asia’s eight direct qualifying places to the expanded 48-team World Cup — co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico — are on offer from this group stage.

The 18 teams advancing from the first group stage from November to June 2024 will enter another round of six-team groups next year. In other groups from Thursday’s draw, Japan will face Syria, North Korea plus either Myanmar or Macau, who have a two-leg playoff in October.

The current security situation in Syria, and also Afghanistan and Yemen, means those teams are likely to play “home” games in neutral countries. Australia’s home-based players will have at least one round trip of about 25,000 kilometers (15,000 miles) in a group with Palestine, Lebanon and either Maldives or Bangladesh.

South Korea, whose run of 10 straight qualifications started at the 1986 World Cup, are in a group with China, Thailand and either Singapore or Guam. South Korea are now led by Jurgen Klinsmann, who is aiming for a third World Cup as coach after his native Germany in 2006