Jakarta, IO – The Indonesian men’s football team will clash against Brunei Darussalam in the 2026 World Cup qualification match on October 12 and 17 in a Home & Away system.
The draw was held at the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Thursday (27/7). The Garuda squad will first play Brunei because it is ranked 28th in the FIFA rankings at the Asian level. FIFA rule requires teams ranked 27-46 to play Home & Away games.
In the draw, Indonesia was in the same group with Hong Kong, Taiwan, Maldives, Yemen, Afghanistan, Singapore, Myanmar, Nepal and Cambodia. Later, the 10 winners of the first round will progress to the second round to join the 26 teams that qualified automatically. A total of 36 teams were divided into 9 groups of four teams each.
Then the 18 teams consisting of winners and runners-up groups will qualify for the third round. In this phase, there will be three groups containing six teams to compete in Home & Away round robin.
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In the fourth round, the six teams that qualify for the third round will be divided into two groups of three teams each to appear in a round robin match. The group winner will automatically qualify for the 2026 World Cup finals.
For the group runners up, they will undergo a fifth qualifying round to face countries from other confederations in a play off. (rr)