Bangladesh avoid play-off fate
The 34th place in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) according to the latest FIFA rankings has helped Bangladesh avoid preliminary play-off matches as they will be taking part straight in the group stage qualifiers for the 2018 FIFA World Cup and the 2019 Asian Cup.
The AFC's competitions committee, through a circular yesterday, unveiled the detailed format of the qualifying campaign for both the tournaments, based on the FIFA rankings published on January 9.
According to the new format, the top 34 teams of Asia will be joined by six more teams -- winners of play-off matches among the 12 teams ranked from 35 to 46 -- for the group stages of the qualifiers. The 40 teams will be split into eight groups of five teams each, and each of the five teams will play all the four other teams twice on home and away basis to decide the standings.
This format ensures that Bangladesh will play at least eight matches in group stages of qualifiers to be held between June 11, 2015 and March 29, 2016.
The eight group winners and four best runners-up teams will go to the final round of World Cup Qualifiers while these 12 teams will also get direct entry into the Asian Cup. The remaining 28 teams of the group stages will be trimmed to 24 based on their standings and will go through another round of qualification to determine the next 12 teams for the Asian Cup.
Among the seven teams under the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF), only Bangladesh (34) and Maldives (18) have managed to get a direct entry into the group stage of qualifiers while India (35), Sri Lanka (36), Nepal (42), Pakistan (43) and Bhutan (46) will have to go through the play-offs before the group stages. Afghanistan, the holders of the SAFF Championship, have already left SAFF and joined Central Asian Football Federation.
The play-off matches among the bottom 12 teams will be held on March 12 and 17 to determine the six teams who will join the top 34 teams for the group stages. The draw for the group stages will be held after these play-offs. Ten match days have been fixed for the group stage matches: June 11, June 16, September 3, September 8, October 8, October 13, November 12 and November 17 of 2015 and March 24 and March 29 of 2016.
Apart from these eight matches, Bangladesh national team will also participate in the Bangabandhu Gold Cup starting this month and the SAFF Championship towards the end of the year while the Olympic team will take part in the AFC U-23 Qualifiers (Also Olympic Qualifiers) in March in Dhaka.
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