Iran is happy about qualifying for the World Cup: the dream of 2026 is alive!

Iran is happy about qualifying for the World Cup: the dream of 2026 is alive!

On March 25, 2025, Iran's national soccer team became another team to secure a World Cup ticket for the final round of the 2026 World Cup. This is the team's seventh qualification in its history. The team secured the decisive point with a 2:2 (0:1) draw against Uzbekistan in Tehran, which means that Iran can no longer be pushed out of one of the first two places in Group A of the Asian qualification. Iran is currently in 18th place in the FIFA world rankings. The team's coach is Amir Ghalenoei.

The performance of striker Mehdi Taremi, who comes from Inter Milan, was particularly outstanding and equalized twice in the game. While Iran is now assured of qualification for the World Cup, the Uzbekists still have a good chance of making their first World Cup debut.

Advanced Participation and Qualification Mode

Anticipation for the 2026 World Cup will be increased by increasing the number of participants from 32 to 48 teams, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) announced. For Asian teams, the changes mean that 8 to 9 teams from Asia are expected to take part in the World Cup, which is a significant increase from a maximum of 5 teams at the last World Cup in Qatar in 2022.

The qualification process for the 2026 World Cup in Asia began in October 2023 and will run until November 2025. A total of 46 teams will take part in the qualification and 8 World Cup tickets will be awarded. The qualification mode is divided into several rounds. In the first round, the 20 weakest nations start in the knockout system, with the 10 winners advancing. In the second round, 36 teams play in 9 groups of four, from which the group winners and runners-up qualify for the third round.

The next steps towards the 2026 World Cup

In the third round, 18 teams play in 3 groups of six, from which 6 teams qualify directly for the World Cup. The third and fourth place teams in the third round will then fight in two groups of three for two more World Cup starting places. The last two places for the World Cup will ultimately be awarded via an intercontinental playoff in March 2026, in which the winners of the home and away games will have the last chance to take part in the World Cup.

So far, Japan and New Zealand have already qualified for the World Cup through sport. The three hosts, USA, Canada and Mexico, are also automatically qualified for the tournament. A look back at the qualification and the next steps gives hope for an exciting World Cup in 2026.