Kuala Lumpur
\nPakistani footballers are set to mark a historic moment in the country\u2019s sports domain by featuring in the AFC Futsal Asian Cup Qualifiers for the very first time.
\nWith Pakistan joining 31 other nations in the competition, the tournament will commence with the draw on June 26 at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur.
\nThe 32 participating teams will be split into eight groups \u2014 seven groups of four and one group of three \u2014 for the qualifiers, which will be held in a centralised league format from September 20 to September 24.
\nPakistan has been placed in Pot 4, along with other debutant or lower-ranked teams. The seeding is based on the latest FIFA Futsal Men\u2019s World Rankings, where Pakistan is currently unranked.
\nThis makes the upcoming qualifiers a valuable opportunity to gain international exposure and collect ranking points.
\nThe top team from each group, along with the seven best second-placed sides, will qualify for the 18th edition of the AFC Futsal Asian Cup Finals in Indonesia, scheduled for January 2026.
\nThe competition will be fierce, with futsal giants like Iran (World No 5), Thailand (11), Japan (13), and Uzbekistan (23) among the top-seeded teams. These nations have maintained a consistent presence in every edition of the tournament since its inception in 1999.
\nThe national side, meanwhile, will be aiming to pull off a few surprises and build a foundation for long-term progress in the Asian futsal landscape.
\nThe group draw, scheduled for 3 PM Malaysia time on June 26, has generated considerable anticipation as Pakistan awaits its first taste of continental futsal competition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kuala Lumpur Pakistani footballers are set to mark a historic moment in the country\u2019s sports domain by featuring in the AFC Futsal Asian Cup Qualifiers for the very first time. With Pakistan joining 31 other nations in the competition, the tournament will commence with the draw on June 26 at the AFC House in Kuala …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":82718,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82714"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82724,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82714\/revisions\/82724"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}