The group stage draw for the FIFA World Cup 2022 will be held in Doha on April 1. Here's all you need to know, including qualified teams and how to watch.
The FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar will be the last edition of the global football extravaganza with 32 teams before it becomes a 48-team tournament in 2026. 29 national teams have confirmed places so far for Qatar 2022, with three places are still to be decided. But this unusual Football World Cup will take shape tonight at an unprecedented draw. The draw for FIFA World Cup 2022 will be telecast live. Fans can stream the event live online.
The full lineup will not be known until at least June 14, when the intercontinental playoff round ends in Qatar. That is 74 days after the draw and the same date the 2018 tournament started in Russia, which was thrown out of the final stages of qualifying this time over the invasion of Ukraine.
As of March 31, 29 teams have officially qualified for the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar. They are (earliest first): Qatar, Germany, Denmark, Brazil, France, Belgium, Croatia, Spain, Serbia, England, Switzerland, Netherlands, Argentina, Iran, South Korea, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Ecuador, Uruguay, Canada, Ghana, Senegal, Portugal, Poland, Tunisia, Morocco, Cameroon, United States, and Mexico.
Here's How They Qualified And Which Countries Can Still Make The Trip To Qatar
Hosts: Qatar
UEFA (Europe - 13 spots): Germany - Group J winners; Denmark - Group F winners; France - Group D winners; Belgium - Group E winners; Croatia - Group H winners; Spain - Group B winners; Serbia - Group A winners; England - Group I winners; Switzerland - Group C winners; Netherlands -Group G winners; Portugal - playoff winners; Poland - playoff winners. Teams that can still qualify: Scotland vs Ukraine or Wales, through a play-off.
CONMEBOL (South America - 4.5 spots): Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Equador. Peru have advanced to the inter-confederation play-off. They will take on UAE or Australia.
AFC (Asia - 4.5 spots + 1 hosts): Iran - 3rd Round, Group A winners; South Korea - 3rd Round, Group A runners-up; Japan - 3rd round, Group B runners-up; Saudi Arabia - 3rd round, Group B, winners. Teams that can still qualify: UAE or Australia meet in the fourth round, with the winners facing Peru to decide the AFC vs CONMEBOL inter-confederation play-off.
CAF (Africa - 5): Ghana, Senegal, Tunisia, Morocco and Cameroon.
CONCACAF (North, Central American and Caribbean - 3.5 spots): Canada, United States, and Mexico. Teams that can still qualify: Costa Rica. They will face New Zealand in the inter-confederation playoff.
OFC (0.5 slot): Team which can qualify - New Zealand. They will face the fourth-place team in the CONCACAF qualifiers (Costa Rica), with the winners going to Qatar.
The teams will be placed in pots 1 to 4 based on their respective FIFA World Ranking released on March 31.
Qatar, as hosts, will take position A1 in Pot 1, where they will be joined by the seven highest-ranked teams. The teams occupying positions 8-15 in the FIFA ranking will be in Pot 2, while the 16th-23rd ranked teams will be placed in Pot 3. Pot 4 will include the qualified teams in positions 24 to 28, plus three placeholders -- the two winners of the intercontinental play-offs and the remaining UEFA play-off winner.
Pot 1: Brazil, Belgium, France, Argentina, England, Spain, Portugal, Qatar;
Pot 2: Denmark, Netherlands, Germany, Mexico, United States, Switzerland, Croatia, Uruguay;
Pot 3: Senegal, Iran, Japan, Morocco, Serbia, Poland, South Korea, Tunisia;
Pot 4: Winners of AFC vs CONMEBOL playoff, Winners of OFC vs CONCACAF playoff, Winners of UEFA playoff, Saudi Arabia, Ecuador, Ghana, Cameroon, Canada.
The FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar will kick-off on November 21, and finishes on December 18. The group stage draw will be held at Doha Exhibition and Convention Centre on April 1, starting 9.30 PM IST. In India, the draw will be telecast live on History TV18 HD. Live streaming of FIFA World Cup 2022 will be available on VootSelect. FIFA also live stream the event on its media platforms, including YouTube.
FIRST-TIMER QATAR
One sure thing is Qatar will be the top-seeded team in Group A, taking position A1 in the schedule of 64 matches in just 28 days. The privilege is given to all host nations even when ranked No. 65 in the world, as Russia were in the previous edition. Qatar is currently No. 52. Still, the 2019 Asian Cup winners are the exception among modern World Cup hosts, having never before qualified for the finals. Qatar's debut opens the tournament on Monday, November 21 at Al Bayt Stadium.
It means in the group stage Qatar avoids the world's top-ranked teams, from Nos. 1 to 7 — Brazil, Belgium, France, Argentina, England, Spain and Portugal.
Those countries will be the next seven drawn out of top-seeded pot 1 and allocated in turn to Groups B through H.
HOW THE SEEDING WORKS
Seeding pots are filled according to FIFA rankings which weigh results over several years and are officially updated Thursday.
The next eight highest-ranked qualifiers go into pot 2, which is the second to be drawn. It includes Germany and likely the United States and Mexico after Wednesday's qualifying games.
Next is pot 3 with teams ranked in the 20s by FIFA and finally pot 4 including Canada, back in the World Cup after a 36-year gap. Canada are in pot 4 despite leading the North American qualifying group.
The simple format is now complicated by the three playoff entries delayed to June: The European bracket containing Ukraine, which cannot currently prepare a team, and the two intercontinental playoffs.
FIFA weighted those entries downward into pot 4 according to the lowest-ranked potential qualifiers, such as Scotland, New Zealand and the UAE.
Higher-ranked playoff teams Peru and Wales face being seeded below their true level.
GEOGRAPHY LESSON
Geography also limits potential matchups. Teams from the same continent generally can't go in the same group, except for some Europeans. Europe has 13 of the 31 qualifying slots and they cannot all avoid each other.
Five groups get two European teams, and the other three groups each get one. It means 2014 winners Germany from pot 2 can land with defending champions France.
FIXTURE SCHEDULE
Each four-team group of is a round-robin of six games in total. The order each team plays the other is decided by another draw within the ceremony.
After each team is drawn, a subsequent ball — numbered 1, 2, 3 or 4 — is picked to place that country in the fixture grid.
This unpredictability means the two highest-ranked teams in a group could meet in any of the three rounds.
KNOCKOUT STAGE
The 32-team lineup is the perfect number for a knockout bracket. The top two teams in each group — where goal difference is the first tiebreaker — advance to the round of 16.
A team's path through to the quarterfinals, semifinals and final is set in the bracket. If Qatar advances as the Group A winner, it must then play the Group B runner-up, for example.
Teams which advance from the same group cannot meet again until the final.
GOOD DRAW, BAD DRAW?
Is there a “good” or “bad” section of the draw to land in?
Maybe yes at this congested tournament, which will be four days shorter than the 2018 edition in Russia.
Landing in Group B means starting on November 21 instead of November 24 in Group G or H. That means three extra rest days.
The Group G winners would have to play seven games in just 25 days to win the title. That team also gets just two full days off before a round of 16 game on December 5.
Why is the schedule so tight? This FIFA World Cup is jammed into an enforced break in domestic league seasons in Europe.
Reluctant to lose lucrative weekend broadcast slots, Europe's top leagues ensured they will play through November 13 — just eight days before kickoff in Qatar.
(With AP inputs)