Soccer World Cup 2022: Everything you need to know
The 2022 FIFA World Cup is set to take place in Qatar from November 20 until December 18 this year.
This is the first time the prestigious soccer tournament will be hosted in an Arab country, and it is only the second time it has been hosted in Asia.
32 teams from 5 confederations will compete in the championship, played at eight different venues in 5 host cities.
History
Let’s take a walk down memory lane…
The FIFA World Cup hosted its first tournament in 1930. The cup was paused in 1942 and 1946 due to the Second World War.
The event is hosted every four years and has a qualification phase that all teams must comply with. The coveted trophy has been clinched by eight national teams, and Brazil took home the cup an astonishing eight times in World Cup history.
Brazil is also the only team in the tournament’s history to have not missed a tournament since its inception. Germany and Italy have won the cup four times; Argentina and France have clinched top honours twice, and English and Spain have won one competition, respectively.
The current champion is France, who took home the title in an air of blazing glory in 2018.
World Cup 2022: Where will it take place?
The Soccer World Cup is usually played in either May, June or July, but due to Qatar having an excessively hot climate, the games will run between November and December.
During Qatar’s cooler season, the average temperatures hover around 20 degrees Celsius.
Australia, the United States of America, Japan, South Korea and Qatar were all in the running to be chosen as the host country for this year’s FIFA World Cup.
Qatar was chosen after securing 14 points during the bidding phase. Around 17 countries have hosted the World Cup games since its inaugural tournament in the 1930s.
World Cup Teams 2022
The 32 teams that qualified for the 2022 World Cup have already been split into their groups. At the end of the group stages, the leading teams from each group will progress to the following rounds.
Wondering who will be facing who? Here are all the groups and the countries that are in each:
Group A: Qatar, Ecuador, Senegal, The 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
World Cup Viewership
The FIFA World Cup is the most watched sporting event in history. FIFA president Gianni Infantino expects close to 5 billion fans from around the globe to tune in to watch the matches – that’s a lot of football fans!
Kick-off
The first match will place between Qatar and Ecuador on November 20 at 7 pm at the Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor. The final game will be played between the winners of matches 61 and 62.
They will go head-to-head in the FIFA World Cup Final to be played at the Lusail Iconic Stadium in Lusail on December 18 this year.
For all your online betting needs, visit Neds and learn more about all the FIFA World Cup fixtures.
Who will win?
The current favourites to win the tournament outright is Brazil, at odds of 9/2. France and Argentina are close behind, at 6/1 and 7/1 respectively.
Next World Cup
The 2026 World Cup is scheduled to take place in cities across North America. Three countries will jointly host the tournament: Canada, USA, and Mexico.
Ticket Information
Tickets to the FIFA World Cup in Qatar will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis. FIFA has revealed that almost 2.5 million people have already secured tickets for the much-anticipated games.There are still around half a million seats available at the time of writing, so if you want to see the spectacle, be sure to get in quick!
If you want to head to the final, a ticket will cost you roughly $205 dollars, and that’s before paying for a flight to Qatar to see your favourite soccer stars in action.