Qatar has been the talk of the town as they are the host for the upcoming 2022 FIFA World Cup. This event will take place on November 20 to December 18, 2022 at the eight stadium around the country. It will be written down in history being the last cup to qualify 32 teams from fifa world cup club before it increases to 48 teams this upcoming 2022 FIFA World Cup.
The World Cup Qualification
As the world cup is just around the corner, the qualifying match to determine the 32 teams had started on June 2019 and ended on June 14, 2022. It took long to finish due to COVID-19 pandemic. These are participated by seven fifa world cup club as listed below:
- UEFA – Union of European Football Associations
- CONMEBOL – South American Football Confederation
- AFC – Asian Football Confederation
- CAF – Confederation of African Football
- CONCACAF – Confederation of North, Central America, and Caribbean Association Football
- OFC – Oceania Football Confederation
Among these fifa world cup club, only teams from OFC did not make it to the fifa qualifiers 2022. The following countries passed the fifa world cup qualification:
- UEFA – Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, Wales
- CONMEBOL – Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Uruguay
- AFC – Australia, Iran, Japan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Korea
- CAF – Cameroon, Ghana, Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia
- CONCACAF – Canada, Costa Rica, Mexico, United States
The Format for the Qualifications
The fifa world cup qualification format depends on each confederation mentioned above. Each round can be played with the following formats: league or knockout.
- League – more than two teams forms groups to play round-robin home-and-away matches
- Knockout – two teams play two-legged or single-legged home-and-away matches
In the league format, the ranking will be based on following criteria:
- Points: 3 for win, 1 for draw, 0 for loss
- Goal difference (overall)
- Goals scored (overall)
- Points in matches between teams with tied points
- Goal difference in matches between teams with tied points
- Away goals scored in matches between teams with tied points
- Fair play points
- Drawing of lots by FIFA Organising Committee
In the knockout format, the ranking will be based on following criteria:
- Team with more goals that is away from home over two legs
- Equal away goals is given 30 minutes more which is divided into two 15-minute games
World Cup Draw
The draw over the fifa world cup club after fifa world cup qualification where the fifa qualifiers 2022 are finalized, it is now time to do a draw to determine match schedules. The 32 qualifying teams will be divided into eight groups to come up with four pots. The teams in each pots are determined based on their World Rankings as of March 31 as shown below:
- Pot 1 – Qatar (host, 51), Brazil (1), Belgium (2), France (3), Argentina (4), England (5), Spain (7), Portugal (8)
- Pot 2 – Mexico (9), Netherlands (10), Denmark (11), Germany (12), Uruguay (13), Switzerland (14), United States (15), Croatia (16)
- Pot 3 – Senegal (20), Iran (21), Japan (23), Morocco (24), Serbia (25), Poland (26), South Korea (29), Tunisia (35)
- Pot 4 – Cameroon (37), Canada (38), Ecuador (46), Saudi Arabia (49), Ghana (60), Wales (18), Costa Rica (31), Australia (42)
Pot 1 has the host which is automatically assigned to A1 with the seven best teams on the ranking. Pot 2 has the next eight best teams. Pot 3 has the other next eight best teams after Pot 2. Meanwhile, Pot 4 has the five lowest rank teams with an addition of the placeholders from the inter-confederation play-off two highest ranked teams and the winner of the UEFA Path A play-off.
The final draw teams were selected randomly forming eight groups with four teams each which were seeded to determine which teams would face off.
- A – Qatar vs. Ecuador, Senegal vs. Netherlands
- B – England vs. Iran, United States vs. Wales
- C – Argentina vs. Saudi Arabia, Mexico vs. Poland
- D – France vs. Australia, Denmark vs. Tunisia
- E – Spain vs. Costa Rica, Germany vs. Japan
- F – Belgium vs. Canada, Morocco vs. Croatia
- G – Brazil vs. Serbia, Switzerland vs. Cameroon
- H – Portugal vs. Ghana, Uruguay vs. South Korea
Places and Dates to Remember
As the fifa world cup qualification was already finished and the fifa qualifiers 2022 were already determined, you can check fifa online for the dates and places the World Cup will happen.
- Group Stage – November 20 to December 2
- Round of 16 – December 3 to December 6
- Quarter Finals – December 9 and Decemeber 10
- Semi Finals – Decembe 13 and December 14
- Final – December 18
Locations and Capacities
- Lusail Iconic Stadium (80,000)
- Al Bayt Stadium (60,000)
- Stadium 974 (40,000)
- Al Thumama Stadium (40,000)
- Khalifa International Stadium (45,416)
- Education City Stadium (45,350)
- Ahmad bin Ali Stadium (44,740)
- Al Janoub Stadium (40,000)
Preparation for the World Cup
Qatar being a small country to host a big event faced a lot of challenges. Hassan Al Thawadi, as the Secretary General of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, overlooks the preparation for the event. They had been in great but memorable pressure to build hotels, stadiums, and other infrastructures that will be needed on the event.
Al Thawadi spared time to visit London to get some inspirations and was amazed by the fan parks created for the 2018 World Cup that took place in Russia. The concept of it is to give access to fans or people with what is happening with the event. Aside from that, real-time and live updates can also be checked via fifa online.
Aside from fifa online, there are also specific broadcasting companies that won the rights to air the World Cup in different countries. You can check via internet what channels will have the broadcast of the event. Make sure you take note of the correct date and time to tune in so you would not miss anything.
The 2022 FIFA World Cup is much anticipated since it would be the last game with 32 teams as it would change in the upcoming 2026 tournament. Fans are also getting excited as the time for football enthusiasts to gather and have fun.