The Asian Football Confederation has announced the pots to be used in the draw for the first group phase of qualifiers for Russia 2018. The draw will be held on TUE 14 APR 2015.

The seedings were based on the FIFA rankings for APR 2015, in which the teams that competed in the 2014 Men’s World Cup – Iran, Japan, Korea Rep, and Australia – were the Asian sides nearest the top. Chinese Taipei, who overcame a first leg loss to defeat Brunei Darussalam in the preliminary round, bring up the rear in the fifth pot.

The teams will be drawn into eight groups of five teams each for the first group phase, which begins in JUN 2015. The first placed teams, plus four wild cards, will move through to the second group phase and will also earn qualification to the 2019 Men’s Asian Cup.

• Pot 1: Australia, China PR, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Korea Rep, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan
• Pot 2: Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Vietnam
• Pot 3: Afghanistan, India, Lebanon, Maldives, Palestine, Philippines, Tajikistan, Thailand
• Pot 4: Bhutan, Indonesia, Korea DPR, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Singapore, Timor-Leste, Turkmenistan
• Pot 5: Bangladesh, Cambodia, Chinese Taipei, Guam, Hong Kong, Laos, Malaysia, Yemen