World Cup 2022: What You Need to Know
Omar Mahmoud
Qatar World Cup 2022 is Coming!
Now, for all my football fans out there reading this, those words cause goosebumps. The greatest competition, in arguably all of sports, is going to be played, and the last time we had this tournament and atmosphere was in 2018, 4 years ago.
There’s also all of you non soccer fans who opened this article wanting to learn more about this tournament and what all the hype is about. Well, I got you.
In this article, I’ll go over the history of the World Cup, the format, the groups and everything that you need to know about this great tournament. This is for those of you who know nothing about this tournament, but keep seeing a lot about it on your social media and want to learn more. It’s also for the soccer fans who might want to consolidate some of their information.
To begin, the World Cup is an international football tournament which is played by national teams from all over the world every 4 years. Each country has a squad of players who are citizens of that country, and they play each other in this tournament, or in the qualifications.
Some terms to know:
Round Robin : Everyone in the group plays everyone else; teams earn 3 points for winning a game, 1 point for a draw, and 0 points for a loss.
Pool: the contestants
Pot : A method of grouping used for draws; where the best teams (based on some sort of ranking) are in the first pot, and then the 2nd, and so on
Hosted by: One country is chosen to host the World Cup, and allocate a number of stadiums that will be used for all the matches. They automatically qualify for the tournament without participating in the qualification process.
Knockout : In context of the World Cup - a type of elimination where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up
History:
The World Cup is run by FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association), which is the international governing body of football. FIFA was founded in 1904 to consolidate the international football tournaments, and to make them official with medals and trophies. Football was first considered an official sport in the 1908 London Summer Olympics, but it was only for amatuer teams. In 1914, FIFA recognized this tournament as “world championship for amateurs'' and sought for an independent tournament for professional players.
In 1928 the idea for the World Cup was set, and Uruguay was named the host country for the 1930 world cup, and some countries were invited. Due to the costly trip to South America, many European countries decided to not participate. Finally 2 months before the tournament, the president of FIFA managed to convince 4 European countries to join. In the end, there were 13 teams, and Uruguay won the first ever World Cup.
Up until 1950, there were many troubles and disagreements between the nations which could’ve ended the tournament all together. For example, Uruguay boycotted the 1934 and 1938 tournaments (both hosted by European countries) due to European countries not participating in their World Cup. In fact, only 3 North and South American countries participated in 1934, and 2 in 1938. After that, the next 2 editions were canceled due to World War II. Finally, in 1950, things settled down. The tournament was held on a regular basis and there was a normal qualification process.
Format:
While there used to be smaller tournaments with 13,16 and 24 teams, in 1998, the tournament was expanded to the current 32 team format.
The 32 teams are split into 8 round robin groups of 4. After the matches are finished, the top 2 teams from each group with the most points qualify for the round of 16, where the tournament starts to be a knockout format. Next, there is a quarter final (8 teams), semi final (4 teams) and then a final and a 3rd place match.
Fun fact, this is actually the last 32 team tournament, with the next tournament in 2026 (hosted by the USA, Mexico and Canada) scheduled to have 48 teams.
Qualification:
This is a section that I could write a lot about, but let me explain it briefly. Each of FIFA’s 6 continental federations has its own qualification process to send out a certain number of teams depending on how good their respective teams are. For example, European teams have the best record at the World Cup, and, therefore, send 13 teams. South America is also really strong, and they send 4 teams. This may confuse you (how only 4 teams when they’re strong!?) When you look at the fact that the South American confederation has 10 teams, that’s 40% of their nations represented at the World Cup. Africa sends 5 teams, North America sends 3 and Asia sends 4. Now you may be asking, “Well that’s 29, plus the host is 30, what about the other 2? And what about Oceania? ”
Great Questions.
The numbers I gave are the numbers which go directly to the World Cup. 4 of the 6 continents send in an extra team which participates in a “playoff tournament” if you will. Oceania’s qualification sends only one team to participate in it, and each of Asia, South and North America send in an extra player from their qualification process to this playoff. The South American team plays the Asian team, while the Oceanic team plays the North American team. The winners qualify to the World Cup.
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Now for this specific edition.
Basic info:
Host : Qatar
Number of Stadiums : 8
Reigning Champions (2018 winner): France
Number of teams : 32
Dates : 20 November - 18 December
The qualified teams are :
Qatar (Hosts)
UEFA (Europe):
Belgium
Croatia
Denmark
England
France
Germany
Netherlands
Poland
Portugal
Serbia
Spain
Switzerland
Wales
CAF (Africa):
Senegal
Tunisia
Cameroon
Ghana
Morocco
AFC (Asia):
Japan
Saudi Arabia
Australia
South Korea
Iran
CONMEBOL (South America):
Argentina
Brazil
Uruguay
Ecuador
CONCACAF (North America):
USA
Canada
Mexico
Costa Rica
So, yeah, we qualified, we are in Canada.
Now to wrap it up, because it’s getting too long, the draw was made in April, based on pots based on the monthly FIFA rankings.
The Result:
Group A: Qatar, Netherlands, Senegal, Ecuador
Group B: USA, England, Iran, Wales
Group C: Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Poland
Group D: France, Denmark, Tunisia, Australia
Group E: Spain, Germany, Costa Rica, Japan
Group F: Belgium, Canada, Morocco, Croatia
Group G: Brazil, Switzerland, Cameroon, Serbia
Group H: Portugal, South Korea, Ghana, Uruguay
I’d just like to highlight some of the exciting games. These are games that you should probably at least keep an eye out for, because they’re bound to be dramatic.
Netherlands vs Senegal - November 21
USA vs England - November 25
USA vs Iran - November 29
England vs Wales - November 29
Spain vs Germany (All of group E really, it’s a group of death) - November 27
Uruguay vs Ghana (They met each other in the 2010 World Cup quarter finals, and there was a lot of drama where a Uruguay player stopped a goal from going in with his hands in the penalty box, and Ghana were awarded a penalty that they missed. This hand stopped Ghana from making African history, as they were favorites to win. Ghana are bound to be looking for revenge) - December 2
Portugal vs Uruguay - November 28
Portugal vs Korea - December 2
So, there you have it. I wrapped up pretty much everything you needed to know about this tournament. I hope you found it informative enough.
In the next article (which will be out once the World Cup is underway), I’ll go through the favorites to win, the schedule of the remaining games, and highlight some of the important and exciting games that we’ve seen. I’ll also go over the stadiums of the World Cup, because I kinda rambled on a little too long here.
If you have any questions about the World Cup or any football related things, let me know. I’d love to chat about all things football.