The first step along the road to Qatar 2022 takes place tomorrow when the draw for the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar™ and AFC Asian Cup 2023 Qualifiers - Preliminary Joint Qualification Round 1 takes place at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at 11:00am (local time).
Malaysia, Cambodia, Macau, Laos, Bhutan and Mongolia have been seeded as the draw's top six sides who have the challenging task of facing possible opponents – Bangladesh, Guam, Brunei Darussalam, Timor-Leste, Pakistan and Sri Lanka for a place in the next qualifying round.
AFC President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa said: "For only the second time in history, the world's biggest footballing stage returns to Asia in Qatar 2022. As we have seen in the last year, Qatar is leaving nothing to chance in staging a truly magnificent spectacle.
"And what better way to kick-start this exciting journey, than right here in our great Continent. On behalf of the Asian football family, I wish all our teams the very best of luck and I am confident we will witness another thrilling qualifying campaign."
The Preliminary Joint Qualification Round 1 draw could revive the exciting contests between familiar foes four years ago when Bhutan defeated Sri Lanka 3-1 on aggregate and Mongolia edged past Timor Leste.
The last edition was also the launch pad for the incredible rise of Asia's emerging sides with India and Yemen beginning exciting qualifying campaigns from the first round which saw them eventually seal their spots among Asia's elite in the AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019.
The first leg of the Preliminary Joint Qualification Round 1 will take place on June 6, 2019, with the return leg scheduled to kick-off on June 11, 2019. The six winners will join Asia's top 34 teams in the Preliminary Joint Qualification Round 2, which will commence in September this year.
With the anticipation building up, football fans can click
here for the live draw as the AFC introduces a new preview programme, featuring some of Asia's most familiar faces who will share their insights on all the teams, final results and post reactions of the draw.
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