The 2022 FIFA World Cup tournament is being held in Qatar starting November 20th to December 18th. This is the first World Cup to be held in a Muslim country, and only the second tournament ever to be held in the Asian continent (first was 2002 in Japan & South Korea). The most noticeable difference from this World Cup and the ones before it is the time it is taking place.
Preparing for the Games in Qatar 2022
Due to Qatar’s extreme temperatures the traditional dates from the end of June into July for the tournament were not a viable option, which is why the tournament is taking place in the fall.
The preparation for the event takes us all the way back to 2010 after the World Cup in South Africa, Qatar got the rights to host the tournament. In total it has cost the Saudis over $220 billion USD to build all of the stadiums and infrastructure for the event, making it the most expensive World Cup ever. In total there will be 8 venues in 5 different city’s where the games will be played. Having the World Cup in Qatar has been a hot topic since FIFA announced it would be held here, there has been controversy over their treatment of migrant workers, women’s rights, and gay rights.
Additionally Qatar and the middle east have never had any sort of soccer culture which has many fans questioning corruption within the FIFA organization. Nevertheless, Qatar made everything work and so far the 2022 World Cup has been something to remember.
Qualification and Team Selection
Traditionally the World Cup consists of the home team (Qatar) which is automatically qualified for the tournament and 31 other countries which all go through a qualification process between their respective continents. The first stage is a group stage selected at random, there are 8 groups with 4 teams in each, after three games, the top two teams from each group advance to the knockout stage with 16 teams left. Three rounds of elimination games are played to determine who makes it to the final, where the winner gets to lift the infamous World Cup trophy.