Vietnam put in seed group No. 2 for World Cup qualifiers

In the latest rankings announced by the global football governing body FIFA, Vietnam ranks 95th in world and 12th in Asia.

By being among the world's top 100 and Asia's top 20 teams, the Vietnamese national team won't need to take part in the play-off round to progress through to the group stage of the qualifiers for both the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2027 AFC Asian Cup.

During qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the team led by head coach Philippe Troussier have been put in Pot 2 together with Uzbekistan, China, Jordan, Bahrain, Syria, Palestine, Kyrgyzstan, and Lebanon.

Elsewhere, Pot 1 sees the presence of leading teams from the Asian region, including Japan, Iran, the Republic of Korea, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Oman.

Pot 3 features India, Tajikistan, Thailand, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the Philippines, Turkmenistan, Malaysia and two play-off winners.

Pot 4 will be made up of teams qualifying from the play-off round.

All 36 teams will be divided into nine groups, with the best two teams going to the third qualification round of the Asian region for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and making the finals of the 2027 AFC Asian Cup.

Vietnam is scheduled to play in the World Cup qualifiers from mid-November to June, 2024.

(Source: VOV)