2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar - UEFA Qualifiers

[Juggy777]

I'm more worried about the players and the injuries next year in Qatar. They have just come out of the competition (95% of all players) and then they have to start again at the World Cup within 1 week. That can never be healthy and never go well, that is an invitation to open injuries. In England they normally play in the month of December, but in other countries they have a winter break. It's there for a reason. Sub-top clubs are not bothered by this, but the strong teams do risk something by letting their strongest players go to the World Cup. Ultimately the choices and responsibility of the player(s) themselves.

ya.ya.yo!

the 2022 fifa world cup, will be held in Qatar, this will be the first world cup ever to be held in the middle east, and the first to be held in an Islamic majority country, in my personal opinion maybe the obstacles experienced by players because of the weather problem in Qatar, because the weather there summer is usually long, hot and humid, if it's a matter of the condition of the players I think they will be fine, because all competitions end in the 6th month of 2022, so the players have a few months to keep their bodies steady fit, maybe the problem is the players who play in the English league, because we know there are so many competitions that are run in England..

Well this is something very true, when the soccer world cup approaches, some players usually suffer injuries, the most famous ones suffer injuries and some are left out of the world championship causing them to take others for them, of course this is something very sad, perhaps people Say, that they prefer that good players take care of themselves and not expose themselves to the dangers that a friendly soccer match can bring, or maybe their clubs do not put them to take care of themselves, but certainly that is their job and if an accident happens, that represents the low risk which they are always subject to, I think there is nothing to do there.

I believe that player’s and coaching staff are well aware of these issues, and they accordingly map a plan about who gets how much time on the pitch and they try to rotate player’s accordingly. Lastly if a club feels a player is injured then they may ask that player to be left out, but I doubt any player would be keen to miss the world cup, hence let’s hope that all the player’s return injury free to their respective clubs at the end of the tournament.

[joker_josue]

I believe that player’s and coaching staff are well aware of these issues, and they accordingly map a plan about who gets how much time on the pitch and they try to rotate player’s accordingly. Lastly if a club feels a player is injured then they may ask that player to be left out, but I doubt any player would be keen to miss the world cup, hence let’s hope that all the player’s return injury free to their respective clubs at the end of the tournament.

I believe the injury problem will be more after the World Cup than during.

It's towards the end of the season that players will feel the plethora of games they've made. Usually they do the world championship, and then they have a small vacation and then the pre-season starts when you can manage the training load.

This year, they finish the world championship and return to the clubs, where they will have to win the final phase of the season, with very intense games. It will be in this scenario that problems can arise.

But we hope not!

[romero121]

I'm more worried about the players and the injuries next year in Qatar. They have just come out of the competition (95% of all players) and then they have to start again at the World Cup within 1 week. That can never be healthy and never go well, that is an invitation to open injuries. In England they normally play in the month of December, but in other countries they have a winter break. It's there for a reason. Sub-top clubs are not bothered by this, but the strong teams do risk something by letting their strongest players go to the World Cup. Ultimately the choices and responsibility of the player(s) themselves.

ya.ya.yo!

the 2022 fifa world cup, will be held in Qatar, this will be the first world cup ever to be held in the middle east, and the first to be held in an Islamic majority country, in my personal opinion maybe the obstacles experienced by players because of the weather problem in Qatar, because the weather there summer is usually long, hot and humid, if it's a matter of the condition of the players I think they will be fine, because all competitions end in the 6th month of 2022, so the players have a few months to keep their bodies steady fit, maybe the problem is the players who play in the English league, because we know there are so many competitions that are run in England..

Well this is something very true, when the soccer world cup approaches, some players usually suffer injuries, the most famous ones suffer injuries and some are left out of the world championship causing them to take others for them, of course this is something very sad, perhaps people Say, that they prefer that good players take care of themselves and not expose themselves to the dangers that a friendly soccer match can bring, or maybe their clubs do not put them to take care of themselves, but certainly that is their job and if an accident happens, that represents the low risk which they are always subject to, I think there is nothing to do there.

Players relieve from the team out of injury, but people weren't able to accept it. This is all because of having big expectation over that particular player. It is always good to be safe and take good rest before the days of big events, because the players wholeheartedly wish to play but when there happens health issues automatically they can't participate.

The same will also be attributed as the players are willing to play for the club as it pays big, but weren't able to play for the country.

[wxa7115]

We must also remember that FIFA is trying to move the World Cup from a four-year cycle to a two-year one. This will deal a serious blow to the clubs and to the prestige of this competition, it seems to me that sooner or later it will lead to the fact that the meaning of playing for the national teams will gradually disappear.

That will really devalue the World Cup if they did that, in the case of an increase in the number of participants I am not really against it as the best team will still win, while giving many countries that would have no chance to assist to the world cup a chance to do so.

But a tournament that is held every two years is a problem in my mind as now players will need to play twice as much for their national teams, and I have no doubts that many will decide to retire and not participate with them in order to avoid injuries, decreasing the importance and skill level of the competition in the process.

I agree with your complete statement they need to think about these things because soccer is really amazing game for many decades and now just for their own sack decreasing quality and duration can hurt this very badly even many feeling with current duration increasing in teams is something better but still this need some better strategy because this can hurt quality very badly recently we have very competitive teams fighting for place into last 32 which is very hard so if they increase without any proper strategy this could be not good enough first check all details and then having some better solution is surely can help to all parties in many ways with increase of revenue for FIFA and entertainment for many more fans.

Another problem with holding the World Cup so often is the fact that we will have twice as many champions in the same amount of time that it would have taken in the past to crown a single champion, now this may not seem like a big issue for some but it is.

For example when Spain was able to win the World Cup by the time it took to hold the next World Cup the team was nowhere near as good as it was and they failed to repeat as champions, however if the World Cup is being held every 2 years then it will be way too easy for a good generation of players to repeat and win the World Cup back to back, diminishing in the process the feat that has only be done by Italy and Brazil.

[LUCKMCFLY]

We must also remember that FIFA is trying to move the World Cup from a four-year cycle to a two-year one. This will deal a serious blow to the clubs and to the prestige of this competition, it seems to me that sooner or later it will lead to the fact that the meaning of playing for the national teams will gradually disappear.

That will really devalue the World Cup if they did that, in the case of an increase in the number of participants I am not really against it as the best team will still win, while giving many countries that would have no chance to assist to the world cup a chance to do so.

But a tournament that is held every two years is a problem in my mind as now players will need to play twice as much for their national teams, and I have no doubts that many will decide to retire and not participate with them in order to avoid injuries, decreasing the importance and skill level of the competition in the process.

I agree with your complete statement they need to think about these things because soccer is really amazing game for many decades and now just for their own sack decreasing quality and duration can hurt this very badly even many feeling with current duration increasing in teams is something better but still this need some better strategy because this can hurt quality very badly recently we have very competitive teams fighting for place into last 32 which is very hard so if they increase without any proper strategy this could be not good enough first check all details and then having some better solution is surely can help to all parties in many ways with increase of revenue for FIFA and entertainment for many more fans.

Another problem with holding the World Cup so often is the fact that we will have twice as many champions in the same amount of time that it would have taken in the past to crown a single champion, now this may not seem like a big issue for some but it is.

For example when Spain was able to win the World Cup by the time it took to hold the next World Cup the team was nowhere near as good as it was and they failed to repeat as champions, however if the World Cup is being held every 2 years then it will be way too easy for a good generation of players to repeat and win the World Cup back to back, diminishing in the process the feat that has only be done by Italy and Brazil.

Well, in my personal opinion, I do not agree that they lower it to 2 years, if in fact for the South American qualifiers they are very strong, and when it comes to teams like Argentina and Brazil they are always at their peak, it would not give much chance to teams like Venezuela to be able to work their lower leagues and prepare for new generations, it would be very fast and I think it would greatly favor the great teams, I do not know under what parameters they want to celebrate the world cup in that way, I think it would not be so exciting.

[Sithara007]

Well, in my personal opinion, I do not agree that they lower it to 2 years, if in fact for the South American qualifiers they are very strong, and when it comes to teams like Argentina and Brazil they are always at their peak, it would not give much chance to teams like Venezuela to be able to work their lower leagues and prepare for new generations, it would be very fast and I think it would greatly favor the great teams, I do not know under what parameters they want to celebrate the world cup in that way, I think it would not be so exciting.

Actually the current qualification pathway is extremely unfair for teams like Venezuela and Ecuador. These teams are much stronger than the teams in Asia and Africa that manage to qualify for the world cup. But since CONMEBOL has only 4.5 slots for the world cup, most of the time teams like Venezuela fails to qualify. And despite the number of teams going up from 2026 onwards, the quota for CONMEBOL has only increased from 4.5 to 6. Ideally I would have liked the quota to increase to at least 7.5. No team should be penalized, because the other members of their confederation are too strong.

[Slow death]

Well, in my personal opinion, I do not agree that they lower it to 2 years, if in fact for the South American qualifiers they are very strong, and when it comes to teams like Argentina and Brazil they are always at their peak, it would not give much chance to teams like Venezuela to be able to work their lower leagues and prepare for new generations, it would be very fast and I think it would greatly favor the great teams, I do not know under what parameters they want to celebrate the world cup in that way, I think it would not be so exciting.

Actually the current qualification pathway is extremely unfair for teams like Venezuela and Ecuador. These teams are much stronger than the teams in Asia and Africa that manage to qualify for the world cup. But since CONMEBOL has only 4.5 slots for the world cup, most of the time teams like Venezuela fails to qualify. And despite the number of teams going up from 2026 onwards, the quota for CONMEBOL has only increased from 4.5 to 6. Ideally I would have liked the quota to increase to at least 7.5. No team should be penalized, because the other members of their confederation are too strong.

In my opinion, Africa is the most unfair in all of this, a very large continent only has 5 seats, I still don't understand why the corrupt Africans who run soccer don't do anything about it, they just swallow frogs and let FIFA do whatever they want and they don't impose

[Xxmodded]

Well, in my personal opinion, I do not agree that they lower it to 2 years, if in fact for the South American qualifiers they are very strong, and when it comes to teams like Argentina and Brazil they are always at their peak, it would not give much chance to teams like Venezuela to be able to work their lower leagues and prepare for new generations, it would be very fast and I think it would greatly favor the great teams, I do not know under what parameters they want to celebrate the world cup in that way, I think it would not be so exciting.

Actually the current qualification pathway is extremely unfair for teams like Venezuela and Ecuador. These teams are much stronger than the teams in Asia and Africa that manage to qualify for the world cup. But since CONMEBOL has only 4.5 slots for the world cup, most of the time teams like Venezuela fails to qualify. And despite the number of teams going up from 2026 onwards, the quota for CONMEBOL has only increased from 4.5 to 6. Ideally I would have liked the quota to increase to at least 7.5. No team should be penalized, because the other members of their confederation are too strong.

In my opinion, Africa is the most unfair in all of this, a very large continent only has 5 seats, I still don't understand why the corrupt Africans who run soccer don't do anything about it, they just swallow frogs and let FIFA do whatever they want and they don't impose

Many unfair allocation country for participants on World Cup and almost world cup edition only Europe country have many slot and participants, do not know what is the characteristic and value why Europe have many slot country for world cup and African is the small slot only giving 5 seats. Have planning by FIFA for running world cup every two years and I think than bad decision where we know African Nation running on middle of competition like happening right now, Better world cup keep running each four year and not any change to give much benefit and money for FIFA only but player not get anything.

[joker_josue]

Many unfair allocation country for participants on World Cup and almost world cup edition only Europe country have many slot and participants, do not know what is the characteristic and value why Europe have many slot country for world cup and African is the small slot only giving 5 seats.

The fact that Europe has more countries than other continents seems unfair. But there are several reasons for this, from economic to sports.
In terms of sports, there are many countries with a lot of quality in Europe. And economically it is the continent that brings in the most money.

In 2026, the other continents will already have more countries. Although Europe continues to have more, there will be more countries from other continents.
https://www.foxsports.com/soccer/gallery/2026-world-cup-qualifying-spots-allocation-expansion-051017

[Juggy777]

We must also remember that FIFA is trying to move the World Cup from a four-year cycle to a two-year one. This will deal a serious blow to the clubs and to the prestige of this competition, it seems to me that sooner or later it will lead to the fact that the meaning of playing for the national teams will gradually disappear.

That will really devalue the World Cup if they did that, in the case of an increase in the number of participants I am not really against it as the best team will still win, while giving many countries that would have no chance to assist to the world cup a chance to do so.

But a tournament that is held every two years is a problem in my mind as now players will need to play twice as much for their national teams, and I have no doubts that many will decide to retire and not participate with them in order to avoid injuries, decreasing the importance and skill level of the competition in the process.

I agree with your complete statement they need to think about these things because soccer is really amazing game for many decades and now just for their own sack decreasing quality and duration can hurt this very badly even many feeling with current duration increasing in teams is something better but still this need some better strategy because this can hurt quality very badly recently we have very competitive teams fighting for place into last 32 which is very hard so if they increase without any proper strategy this could be not good enough first check all details and then having some better solution is surely can help to all parties in many ways with increase of revenue for FIFA and entertainment for many more fans.

Another problem with holding the World Cup so often is the fact that we will have twice as many champions in the same amount of time that it would have taken in the past to crown a single champion, now this may not seem like a big issue for some but it is.

For example when Spain was able to win the World Cup by the time it took to hold the next World Cup the team was nowhere near as good as it was and they failed to repeat as champions, however if the World Cup is being held every 2 years then it will be way too easy for a good generation of players to repeat and win the World Cup back to back, diminishing in the process the feat that has only be done by Italy and Brazil.

Well, in my personal opinion, I do not agree that they lower it to 2 years, if in fact for the South American qualifiers they are very strong, and when it comes to teams like Argentina and Brazil they are always at their peak, it would not give much chance to teams like Venezuela to be able to work their lower leagues and prepare for new generations, it would be very fast and I think it would greatly favor the great teams, I do not know under what parameters they want to celebrate the world cup in that way, I think it would not be so exciting.

I don’t think the player’s and clubs will accept FIFA decision to have the world cup every two year’s, and if FIFA decides to force it then I’m sure the player’s will opt out of the World Cup and it’ll be a total flop show. Lastly I don’t expect it to pass, because we all saw when people try to dictate terms in football it fails i.e. European Super League.

[KTChampions]

Many unfair allocation country for participants on World Cup and almost world cup edition only Europe country have many slot and participants, do not know what is the characteristic and value why Europe have many slot country for world cup and African is the small slot only giving 5 seats. Have planning by FIFA for running world cup every two years and I think than bad decision where we know African Nation running on middle of competition like happening right now, Better world cup keep running each four year and not any change to give much benefit and money for FIFA only but player not get anything.

Where do you see injustice? Europe is the football center of the world and I think it has fewer slots than it should. Every World Cup, several teams from Europe do not qualify for the tournament, despite being stronger than 90% of the teams from other regions that make it there. I am sure that if the distribution of tickets to the World Cup was fair and not by quotas (the current system), then Europe would very quickly knock out many more slots for itself than it has now.

[wxa7115]

Well, in my personal opinion, I do not agree that they lower it to 2 years, if in fact for the South American qualifiers they are very strong, and when it comes to teams like Argentina and Brazil they are always at their peak, it would not give much chance to teams like Venezuela to be able to work their lower leagues and prepare for new generations, it would be very fast and I think it would greatly favor the great teams, I do not know under what parameters they want to celebrate the world cup in that way, I think it would not be so exciting.

Actually the current qualification pathway is extremely unfair for teams like Venezuela and Ecuador. These teams are much stronger than the teams in Asia and Africa that manage to qualify for the world cup. But since CONMEBOL has only 4.5 slots for the world cup, most of the time teams like Venezuela fails to qualify. And despite the number of teams going up from 2026 onwards, the quota for CONMEBOL has only increased from 4.5 to 6. Ideally I would have liked the quota to increase to at least 7.5. No team should be penalized, because the other members of their confederation are too strong.

In my opinion, Africa is the most unfair in all of this, a very large continent only has 5 seats, I still don't understand why the corrupt Africans who run soccer don't do anything about it, they just swallow frogs and let FIFA do whatever they want and they don't impose

FIFA is a monopoly and like any monopoly it maintains itself in place by using all kind of dirty tricks, for example not long ago the best clubs of Europe wanted to create a super league or something like that, but since it was not FIFA approved it received a major backlash.

I have no doubts that FIFA moved all the strings they could to avoid this league being born, and they succeeded, and if they can do that to the most powerful clubs of Europe then there is not much the confederation of Africa can do to improve their position with FIFA.

[alegotardo]

In my opinion, Africa is the most unfair in all of this, a very large continent only has 5 seats, I still don't understand why the corrupt Africans who run soccer don't do anything about it, they just swallow frogs and let FIFA do whatever they want and they don't impose

In fact, I completely agree with you.
The African continent is a football power, it has several very good teams, but they are teams from poor countries that end up not generating interest in FIFA.
FIFA is moved by money, which is why many "doors are closed" to good football teams.

[joker_josue]

In fact, I completely agree with you.
The African continent is a football power, it has several very good teams, but they are teams from poor countries that end up not generating interest in FIFA.
FIFA is moved by money, which is why many "doors are closed" to good football teams.

I can say, with almost certainty, that maybe the 5 teams from Africa, can't beat (in a normal situation) almost half of the teams from Europe.
And I say more, not even these 5 can win the 5 best in Latin America (in a normal situation).

Of course they have little money and end up having little influence in FIFA, I totally agree. But even so, sportingly speaking, they still have a lot to grow. Look, I see a lot of African players playing in Portugal, and most of them find it difficult to assert themselves in big teams. We found good players, but they are very few, for the amount of players available.

They have to improve their training a lot! But I agree that FIFA should help more in this regard.

[buwaytress]

I can say, with almost certainty, that maybe the 5 teams from Africa, can't beat (in a normal situation) almost half of the teams from Europe.
And I say more, not even these 5 can win the 5 best in Latin America (in a normal situation).

Of course they have little money and end up having little influence in FIFA, I totally agree. But even so, sportingly speaking, they still have a lot to grow. Look, I see a lot of African players playing in Portugal, and most of them find it difficult to assert themselves in big teams. We found good players, but they are very few, for the amount of players available.

They have to improve their training a lot! But I agree that FIFA should help more in this regard.

I wouldn't be so quick to pull out my guns and put convictions behind African teams not being able to beat European or LatAm teams. FIFA rankings already provide a picture of who can beat whom -- there are plenty of minnows in Europe, or in the Caucascus or in Central Asia now playing in Europe but also having low quality.

What to good teams have in common? Good long-term footballing infrastructure and investment. Bad teams? The opposite.

It's not just about "improving their training a lot" my friend. Look at Egypt, one of the best teams in Africa. A typical footballing career for a modern footballer for a big club there starts with training school that is in the city -- several hours drive from any of the villages a young talent would come from. Who's going to pay for that? Parents, we hope. Then there's the issue of school -- how do they go to school and train unless only on the weekends?

Salah famously commuted 8+ hours a day on something like 10 different buses just to go to train. Yes, he was committed, but you cannot blame 1000s of other kids who chose school or to help the family instead of training to go to football.

Compare this to say, even Netherlands on the fringes of European elite leagues, where every neighbourhood has a football pitch, every small city has a well-equipped, well-funded club and training grounds. Any kid who wants to play football has to walk not more than 15 minutes, gets sporting scholarships, help with education, etc.

Of course we don't need to talk about politics, economics, social structure etc. But it's really, really not just about training hard. That's a little disrespectful to African footballers (or anywhere else for that matter) who must not only try to play football, but to deal with all kinds of hardships along the way.

[davis196]

It's going to be weird to watch the FIFA world cup in November/December.
I got used to watching the world cups in June/July.
Is the football season in Europe going to stop because of the FIFA world cup?I don't know about this.
Anyway,everyone knows that European and Latin American teams are the strongest,followed by the African teams.The North American teams are usually at the level of African teams and the Asian teams(except Japan and maybe South Korea) are the weakest,compared to the rest of the continents.
I don't know about Australia,sometimes they play really good,sometimes they are a disappointment.
I'm sure that the pandemic will have a negative impact over the performance of the national teams.Some players will have to be quarantined,others might have post Covid syndromes,which will damage their performance.This is quite unfortunate.

[joker_josue]

It's not just about "improving their training a lot" my friend. Look at Egypt, one of the best teams in Africa. A typical footballing career for a modern footballer for a big club there starts with training school that is in the city -- several hours drive from any of the villages a young talent would come from. Who's going to pay for that? Parents, we hope. Then there's the issue of school -- how do they go to school and train unless only on the weekends?

Attention, when I talk about improving training, that's right! Clubs help young players to be able to dedicate themselves to playing football.

Most of the main clubs in Europe, pay for accommodation, transport, school and other conditions, for their young athletes with quality. And in this way, families have to be financially underpaid, and young people can have better conditions to play.

Now, we are talking about very poor countries. There has to be outside help for us to see this happen. And in this case, it would be FIFA that should give more support to the federations of these countries so that they can improve their conditions for their athletes.

Certainly, we are missing the opportunity to see great players, never to become one.

[KTChampions]

Anyway,everyone knows that European and Latin American teams are the strongest,followed by the African teams.The North American teams are usually at the level of African teams and the Asian teams(except Japan and maybe South Korea) are the weakest,compared to the rest of the continents.

It seems to me that the US team is much stronger than any African team, you underestimate it in vain. Sooner or later it will show it at the World Championship. I read that in the US for several years now the number of boys playing soccer has exceeded the number of boys playing rugby. These quantitative changes turn into qualitative ones and I think that soon the USA will be among the top teams - it's a pity that this team, due to its geography, does not participate in any tournaments that we are used to watching.

[coupable]

Most of the main clubs in Europe, pay for accommodation, transport, school and other conditions, for their young athletes with quality. And in this way, families have to be financially underpaid, and young people can have better conditions to play.

Now, we are talking about very poor countries. There has to be outside help for us to see this happen. And in this case, it would be FIFA that should give more support to the federations of these countries so that they can improve their conditions for their athletes.

Certainly, we are missing the opportunity to see great players, never to become one.

The condition in African countries is not different from many other countries around the world. In fact, football in those countries (like other sports as well) is an undervaled sector. However, the federations of these countries received a grant from FIFA and despite the grant can't cover all the charge for a sport developement, the administrative corruption inside the federations makes the situation getting worst .

[LUCKMCFLY]

Well, in my personal opinion, I do not agree that they lower it to 2 years, if in fact for the South American qualifiers they are very strong, and when it comes to teams like Argentina and Brazil they are always at their peak, it would not give much chance to teams like Venezuela to be able to work their lower leagues and prepare for new generations, it would be very fast and I think it would greatly favor the great teams, I do not know under what parameters they want to celebrate the world cup in that way, I think it would not be so exciting.

Actually the current qualification pathway is extremely unfair for teams like Venezuela and Ecuador. These teams are much stronger than the teams in Asia and Africa that manage to qualify for the world cup. But since CONMEBOL has only 4.5 slots for the world cup, most of the time teams like Venezuela fails to qualify. And despite the number of teams going up from 2026 onwards, the quota for CONMEBOL has only increased from 4.5 to 6. Ideally I would have liked the quota to increase to at least 7.5. No team should be penalized, because the other members of their confederation are too strong.

In my opinion, Africa is the most unfair in all of this, a very large continent only has 5 seats, I still don't understand why the corrupt Africans who run soccer don't do anything about it, they just swallow frogs and let FIFA do whatever they want and they don't impose

FIFA is a monopoly and like any monopoly it maintains itself in place by using all kind of dirty tricks, for example not long ago the best clubs of Europe wanted to create a super league or something like that, but since it was not FIFA approved it received a major backlash.

I have no doubts that FIFA moved all the strings they could to avoid this league being born, and they succeeded, and if they can do that to the most powerful clubs of Europe then there is not much the confederation of Africa can do to improve their position with FIFA.

If it is no secret to anyone that FIFA had been an organization where a large amount of money was handled and where many acts of soccer games were very unfair, in fact the time the pot was uncovered with all the injustices that were they committed give much to think about, in whose hands was the best sport in the world? Obviously right now the corruption is still going on, in fact one of the things for which I think they want to do the World Cups every 2 years is so that they can get more money.