As stated in the previous post, Asia is guaranteed four spots in the 2014 World Cup and a possible fifth via playoff. The qualifying process is similar to what the confederation used for the 2010 finals, which you can look at here.
A total of 43 of the 46 AFC teams entered qualifying. The three teams that did not were Guam, Brunei and Bhutan. Bhutan are the only members of FIFA to not participate in any World Cup qualifying matches although they did enter for 2010, but withdrew before playing a match due to difficulties getting their stadium ready. Guam's only participation in qualifying came during the 2002 cycle and they have not entered subsequently. Brunei was banned from entering qualifying. They had been under suspension by FIFA since September 2009 after government interference in football affairs. On May 31st of this year, Brunei was reinstated.
Prior to the draw for qualifying, the teams were seeded based on their performances in 2010 World Cup qualifying. The top five teams received a bye to the third round of qualifying. Teams ranked six to 27th received a bye to the second round while the remaining teams were placed in two pots. Pot A were the teams ranked 28-35 and Pot B was the teams ranked 36-43. A list of the rankings can be found here.
The first round consists of these teams being matched up and playing each other home and away with the aggregate winners joining teams in the second round. The second round consists of 15 of these matchups, with the winners joining the five teams already qualified for the third round.
In the third round, the 20 teams will be seeded and placed in five groups of four. Teams will play each opponent in their group both home and away with the top two in each group advancing to the fourth round.
The 10 remaining teams will then be drawn into two groups of five. They will play each group member home and away with the top two teams advancing to the World Cup Finals. The two third place teams will play off against each other for the spot in the intercontinental playoff.
Up next we will look at the results of the first round of qualifying, which match days were June 29th and July 3rd.
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