The AFC second round of 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification, which also serves as the second round of 2027 AFC Asian Cup qualification, is expected to be played from 16 November 2023 to 11 June 2024.
Format
A total of 36 teams will be drawn into 9 groups of 4 to play home-and-away round-robin matches. They include the 26 teams which received byes to this round, and the 10 winners from the first round.
The winners and runners-up of each group will advance to the third round and qualify for 2027 AFC Asian Cup. The third and fourth place teams will advance to the third round of the 2027 Asian Cup qualification.
Seeding
The draw for the second round was held on 27 July 2023 at 16:00 MST (UTC+8) at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The seeding was based on the FIFA World Rankings of July 2023 (shown in parentheses below). The identities of the first round winners were not known at the time of the draw.
Note: Bolded teams qualified for the third round.
Teams whose identity was not known at the time of the draw. Team moved to Pot 3 after the other Pot 4 teams had been drawn into groups. Subsequently drawn at random from Pot 3.
Schedule
The schedule is expected to be as follows, according to the FIFA International Match Calendar.