Background AFC

Asian qualification starts soon, less than two weeks in fact! The people of the various nations cannot wait. Possibly. In a region that includes Iraq, North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan and Palestine (but not Israel, they suprisingly decided they'd rather play in Europe), there's always plenty of fun political tension behind matches.

Asia has a pretty set elite-

1. Japan
2. South Korea
3. Australia
4. North Korea
5. Bahrain

These teams go straight into the third round of qualifying. Lots of fun if the Korea's draw each other like last time. Australia also have got in there depite very clearly not being in Asia, as any eight year old can tell you. Probably bribed someone. Probably that corrupt bastard Blatter, who just got re-elected FIFA President, unopposed, if you don't follow such things. No matter what anyone says about North Korea, they aren't a bad side.

Going into the second round of qualifying we have-

6. Saudi Arabia
7. Iran
8. Qatar
9. Uzbekistan
10. United Arab Emirates
11. Syria
12. Oman
13. Jordan
14. Iraq
15. Singapore
16. China PR
17. Kuwait
18. Thailand
19. Turkmenistan
20. Lebanon
21. Yemen
22. Tajikistan
23. Hong Kong
24. Indonesia
25. Kyrgyzstan
26. Maldives
27. India

Probably about half the worlds population in there, considering you've China and India. Note than India's 1.2 billion people can only just get a team together good enough for this section. Last time round they lost their two legger 6-3 to Lebanon. The Chinese are only slightly better with an even more scary population.

Like in North America, Asia has lots of teams that aren't any good. Unlike North America, this includes many pretty massive countries. The first round of qualifiers takes place between-

28. Malaysia
29. Afghanistan
29. Cambodia
31. Nepal
32. Bangladesh
33. Sri Lanka
33. Vietnam
35. Mongolia
36. Pakistan
37. Palestine
38. Timor-Leste
39. Macau
40. Chinese Taipei
40. Myanmar
42. Philippines
42. Laos

Pretty much a who's who of American bombing targets (I will try to keep political references to a minimum in this blog). Some of these countries are unbelievably bad. Sure, cricket might be the number one sport in Pakistan, but with 170 million people, you'd think they could field a half decent side. Last time around they lost 7-0, at home, to Iraq! Still maybe not quite as bad as India, considering size, but still, get a grip guys.

I will be reporting from this region soon. Will Pakistan, India and China do anywhere near as well as they should? Will Japan and South Korea easily qualify again? Will Americans get scared at all the teams with "-stan" in their name? Only place to find out is right here!