The Asian Football Confederation has announced the seeds for the second group phase of qualifiers for the 2018 Men’s World Cup. The draw will be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on TUE 12 APR 2016.

The pots are based upon the FIFA rankings for APR 2016. The twelve teams that advanced from the first group phase were divided into six pots, each with two teams. Iran and Australia are seeded highest, and Korea Rep and Japan are in the second pot. The same four teams represented Asia at the 2014 Men’s World Cup.

Both groups will be allocated one team from each of the six pots. The teams will play each opponent in their group twice starting in SEP 2016, with the top two teams in each group qualifying for Russia. The third placed teams will play off against one another, and the winner will have one last chance to qualify against CONCACAF’s fourth placed team.

• Pot 1: Australia, Iran
• Pot 2: Japan, Korea Rep
• Pot 3: Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan
• Pot 4: China PR, United Arab Emirates
• Pot 5: Iraq, Qatar
• Pot 6: Syria, Thailand