War Elephants draw Korea and China for WC qualifiers

Thailand were yesterday drawn in the tough Group C of the Preliminary Joint Qualification Round 2 for the 2026 Fifa World Cup and the 2027 AFC Asian Cup.

The group includes Asian giants South Korea and China with the fourth team in the pool being the winners of a play-off between Singapore or Guam.

The 36 participating countries were drawn into nine groups of four teams each. They will compete against each other in a home-and-away, round-robin format between November 2023 and June 2024.

A total of 10 teams from the phase will progress to Round 1 of the Preliminary Joint Qualification.

As there will be 48 teams — a first — at the 2026 World Cup, eight and a half slots are on offer to the Asian…