While the opening matches are still more than six months away, excitement is building around the world for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. This year’s addition of the pinnacle tournament in the sport is taking place in Qatar with the first match kicking off on November 21st and the cup final scheduled for December 18th. Qualifiers for the tournament have been underway since June 6th all the way back in 2019, seeing 15 teams already claim spots in the tournament leaving 17 slots up for grabs before the qualification period ends in June.
The qualification process breaks down the availability of the tournament spots into the different international regions, only allowing a set number of qualifiers from each region. Africa (CAF) provides 5 qualifiers, Asia (AFC) provides 4 qualifiers, plus one intercontinental playoff competitor, Europe (UEFA) provides 13 qualifiers, North/Central America & Caribbean (CONCACAF) nations compete for 3 qualifying spots and send one intercontinental playoff contender. The region of South America (CONMEBOL) sends 4 qualifiers and an intercontinental playoff nation, with the Oceana (OFC) region sending the final intercontinental.
The host nation automatically qualifies to the group stage of the tournament along with the other 29 nations who earn a spot from their regions in the qualification process. That leaves two qualifying spots. These two spots are determined by the intercontinental playoff matches. These matches are played in the host nation before the tournament begins (2022 intercontinental matches are scheduled for June in Qatar.) The North/Central American & Caribbean representative plays the Oceana representative, with the Asia representative facing off with the representative from South America. The winner of each match advances to the group stage and joins the 30 previous qualifiers to round out the full field of 32 nations.
Today, on April 1st, the World Cup draw occurred, and teams were split into groups as follows:
Group A: Qatar, Ecuador, Senegal, Netherlands
Group B: England, Iran, United States, Wales OR Scotland OR Ukraine
Group C: Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Poland
Group D: France, Peru OR Australia OR UAE, Denmark, Tunisia
Group E: Spain, Costa Rica OR New Zealand, Germany, Japan
Group F: Belgium, Canada, Morocco, Croatia
Group G: Brazil, Serbia, Switzerland, Cameroon
Group H: Portugal, Ghana, Uruguay, South Korea
