The 2022 FIFA World Cup scheduled to be the 22nd running of the FIFA World Cup competition, the quadrennial international men’s football championship contested by the national teams of the member associations of FIFA. It is scheduled to take place in Qatar from 21 November to 18 December 2022. This will be the first World Cup ever to be held in the Arab world, and it will be the second World Cup held entirely in Asia after the 2022 tournament was held in South Korea and Japan. In addition, the tournament will be the last to involve 32 teams, with an increase to 48 teams scheduled for the 2026 tournament in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. The reigning World Cup champions are France. Due to Qatar’s intense summer heat, this World Cup will be held from late-November to mid-December, making it the first tournament not to be held in May, June, or July; it is to be played in a reduced time-frame of around 28 days. The first match played at the tournament will be contested between Senegal and the Netherlands.
Qualified teams
As of 31 March 2022, 29 nations have qualified for the finals, including 22 that competed at the previous tournament in 2018. Qatar are the only team making their debut in 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 teams that earned a spot through qualification were making their debut. The Netherlands, Ecuador, Ghana, Cameroon and the United States returned to the tournament after missing the 2018 tournament. Canada returned after 36 years, their only prior appearance being in 1986.
Four-time champions and winners of UEFA Euro 2020, Italy, failed to qualify for a second successive World Cup for the first time in their history, losing in the qualification playoff semi-finals against North Macedonia. The Italians were the only former champions that failed to qualify. The previous World Cup hosts, Russia, were disqualified from competing due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
-by Omkar Bhikle.
Credits- 1. Wikipedia
2. FIFA.com
“Some people think football [soccer]is a matter of life and death. I don’t like that attitude. I can assure them it is much more serious than that.”
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