The 2022 FIFA World Cup will be the 22nd edition of the quadrennial international men’s football championship contested by senior national teams of the member associations of FIFA.
It is scheduled to take place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022 with 32 teams contesting for the World Cup.
This will be the first World Cup to be held in the Arab world and the second World Cup held in Asia.
Unlike before, this World Cup is going to be held from late-November to mid-December due to Qatar’s intense summer heat, making it the first World Cup not to be held in May,
June, or July and to take place in the northern autumn; it will be played in a reduced timeframe of around 29 days.
The first match in the competition will be played between Qatar and Ecuador at Al Bayt Stadium, Al Khor.
The final is due to be held on December 18 2022 which is also Qatar National Day.
In 2010, Qatar was given the right to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. In 2011, allegations of corruption within FIFA senior officials were made and it raised questions over the legitimacy of the competition being held in Qatar.
The accusations of corruption were made relating to how Qatar won the right to host the event. A
FIFA internal investigation and report cleared Qatar of any violation, but chief investigator Micheal J. Garcia has since described FIFA’s report on his enquiry as containing “numerous materially incomplete and erroneous representations.”
Qatar is the smallest nation by area ever to have been awarded a FIFA World Cup – the next smallest by area is Switzerland, host of the 1954 FIFA World Cup, which is more than three times as large as Qatar and only needed to host 16 teams instead of the current 32.
Qatar also became only the second country (not including Uruguay and Italy, hosts of the first two World Cups) to be awarded a FIFA World Cup despite having never qualified for a previous edition: Japan was awarded co-hosting rights of the 2002 World Cup in 1996 without ever having qualified for the finals, although they subsequently did qualify for the 1998 World Cup.
TEAMS
Of the 32 nations qualified to play at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, 24 countries competed at the previous tournament in 2018.
Qatar are the only team making their debut at the FIFA World Cup, becoming the first hosts to make their tournament debut since Italy in 1934.
As a result, the 2022 tournament is the first World Cup in which none of the qualified teams is a debutant.
The Netherlands, Ecuador, Ghana, Cameroon and the United States return to the tournament after missing the 2018 tournament.
Canada return after 36 years, their only prior appearance being in 1986.
Wales make their first appearance in 64 years – a record gap for a European team, their only previous participation having been in 1958.
Four-time world champions and reigning European champions Italy failed to qualify for a second successive World Cup for the first time in their history, losing in the qualification play-off semi-finals.
The Italians are the only former champions that failed to qualify.
Italy are also the fourth team to have failed to qualify for the upcoming World Cup having won the previous
UEFA
European Championship, after
Czechoslovakia
in 1978,
Denmark
in 1994
and Greece
in 2006.
The previous World Cup hosts,
Russia,
were disqualified from competing due to the Russian
invasion of Ukraine.
Chile,
the 2015
and 2016
Copa
América winners also failed to qualify for the second
consecutive time.
Nigeria
went out to Ghana on away goals in CAF’s
final playoff round, having qualified for the previous three World Cups and six out of the last seven.
Egypt,
Panama,
Colombia,
Peru,
Iceland
and Sweden,
all of whom qualified for the 2018 World Cup, also
did not qualify for the 2022 tournament.
Group A:
Qatar, Ecuador, Senegal,
Netherlands
Group B:
England, Iran, USA, Wales
Group C:
Argentina, Saudi Arabia,
Mexico, Poland
Group D:
France, Australia, Denmark,
Tunisia
Group E:
Spain, Costa Rica, Germany, Japan
Group F:
Belgium, Canada, Morocco,
Croatia
Group G:
Brazil, Serbia, Switzerland,
Cameroon
Group H:
Portugal, Ghana, Uruguay,
South Korea
The World Cup is just weeks away, but some nations will be goingto the tournament in Qatar without some of their best players.
While England are highly likely to be without right-back Reece James, reigning world champions France have their own issues to contend with such as the absences of midfielders
N’Golo Kante , Boubacar Kamara and goalkeeper Mike Maignan.
Portugal also have their fair share of problems with Premier League forward duo Diogo Jota and Pedro Neto, plus wingback Ricardo Pereira
all unable to compete at the tournament.
The World Cup gets underway on November 20 with the final takingplace at the Lusail Stadium in Doha a week before Christmas on Sunday, December 18.
Okunubi Abdullahi.
Follow us on:
