Asian Games 2026: Olympic Council To Prune Athlete Count? Qualifying Criteria On Anvil

The upcoming editions of Asian Games may be downsized, with certain team sports and some non-Olympic sports being taken away, the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) disclosed on Thursday (September 5, 2024). As the Games are harder to manage for the host nations, the OCA has already spoken with the Asian Football Confederation to cut down the number of teams for the 2026 Asiad. (More Sports News)

To reduce the number, OCA is planning to introduce qualification criteria, and teams that fail to meet it will not be able to compete in the continental showpiece. If such criteria are enforced strictly in football and a few other sports, India could be affected adversely as the men’s and women’s teams are ranked quite low in Asia.

“We are already talking to federations. We have done that with football. We are also talking to handball, hockey, volleyball and some other federations,” OCA’s deputy director general Vinod Tiwari told reporters in a media interaction on Thursday.

"We will have a qualification before and then the qualified teams will go to the Asian Games. Because, otherwise, it becomes unmanageable,” Tiwari added.

Over 15,000 athletes are said to have participated at the Hangzhou Asian Games last year, with team competitions taking up a major chunk. The recently-concluded Paris Olympics, on the other hand, witnessed had about 10,500 athletes competing.

“In Hangzhou, we had 38 football teams and that is a lot,” Tiwari added. The 2026 edition of the Asian Games will be hosted by Nagoya and Aichi in Japan.

Meanwhile, the 44th General Assembly of OCA will be held in Delhi on Sunday (September 8), where long-time sports administrator Raja Randhir Singh is likely to be elected unopposed as the president. Singh is OCA’s acting president currently.