FIFA 2022 world cup

[Ahli38]

I just realized that for the first time there were six teams from Asia (AFC) who managed to advance to the world cup. I think this is new history. I have high hopes for South Korea and Japan in this world cup. although the real challenge will definitely be felt for Korea and Japan because considering Qatar is a pretty hot country so I hope it won't be a problem. even some of my brothers who work in qatar say it's so hot there even at work there is someone who installs air conditioning outside the room. This will definitely be a challenge for a team from a country that has cold temperatures.

[Sithara007]

I just realized that for the first time there were six teams from Asia (AFC) who managed to advance to the world cup. I think this is new history. I have high hopes for South Korea and Japan in this world cup. although the real challenge will definitely be felt for Korea and Japan because considering Qatar is a pretty hot country so I hope it won't be a problem. even some of my brothers who work in qatar say it's so hot there even at work there is someone who installs air conditioning outside the room. This will definitely be a challenge for a team from a country that has cold temperatures.

The hosts always gain automatic qualification, and on top of that there are 4 exclusive slots for AFC. Apart from these, Australia managed to win the playoff against Peru. So in total there are 6 countries from the AFC. All that said, South Korea and Japan are a joke. They have huge fanbase, but they never perform in major tournaments. They look completely clueless when they play against top teams such as Brazil or England.

And now coming to the weather, I don't think that there needs to be much concern. During evening time, the weather is much more tolerable. On top of that, the tournament is taking place during the winter season.

[LUCKMCFLY]

~snip~
I was watching a piece of news, but I don't know if it's real or maybe not, but it announced that perhaps for the next World Cup qualifiers, South America would expand the World Cup quotas to 6 places, if this is the case it will be very interesting , the curious thing is that it only said South America, for Europe it would also apply.

The next world cup, 2026, will be hosted in Canada, USA, and Mexico. All those 3 will be qualified because they're hosts. Also, there will be extra slots for all the confederations.

The 2026 World Cup will have 48 qualified teams instead of the 32 teams of 2022. So that's going to be an extra 16 teams for the next world cup, selected from all the confederations.

It will be the first time that some confederations will be able to qualify directly instead of having to go to play-offs.

Here's the detailed table with the new spots:

Excellent information, the fact of doing it in 3 countries is an experiment that FIFA wants to do to see how things can go, however the most benefited are those from Asia and I like that, also the addition of more countries by UEFA could guarantee that teams like Italy, Sweden if they can have more options to go to the World Cup, particularly I still feel sadness because these two teams do not go to QATAR, because they have a very good history and are actually very representative and they make many countries have many fans and want to revive actions that only they could do, as happened in USA94 with the third place of Sweden and the last World Cup that Italy won with a Zidane who hit an Italian.

I just realized that for the first time there were six teams from Asia (AFC) who managed to advance to the world cup. I think this is new history. I have high hopes for South Korea and Japan in this world cup. although the real challenge will definitely be felt for Korea and Japan because considering Qatar is a pretty hot country so I hope it won't be a problem. even some of my brothers who work in qatar say it's so hot there even at work there is someone who installs air conditioning outside the room. This will definitely be a challenge for a team from a country that has cold temperatures.

The hosts always gain automatic qualification, and on top of that there are 4 exclusive slots for AFC. Apart from these, Australia managed to win the playoff against Peru. So in total there are 6 countries from the AFC. All that said, South Korea and Japan are a joke. They have huge fanbase, but they never perform in major tournaments. They look completely clueless when they play against top teams such as Brazil or England.

And now coming to the weather, I don't think that there needs to be much concern. During evening time, the weather is much more tolerable. On top of that, the tournament is taking place during the winter season.

It's true, I think that the match between Australia and Peru was not that exciting, but this time for me, I was more for Australia than for Peru even though I am South American, I think that the kangaroos of the beautiful country need to do a good job in QATAR . The criticism for the oceanic country has been many, but there is still a long way to go before they can fix all those inconsistencies that could have been shown, I think they will give a good show and will be able to go very far in the World Cup.

[Pandu Geddon]

I just realized that for the first time there were six teams from Asia (AFC) who managed to advance to the world cup. I think this is new history. I have high hopes for South Korea and Japan in this world cup. although the real challenge will definitely be felt for Korea and Japan because considering Qatar is a pretty hot country so I hope it won't be a problem. even some of my brothers who work in qatar say it's so hot there even at work there is someone who installs air conditioning outside the room. This will definitely be a challenge for a team from a country that has cold temperatures.

adaptation must be done as soon as possible by players from cold-weather countries. they can arrive early and try to get their bodies used to train and matches in the heat.
but usually, in official matches with the host country's weather being quite hot, there will be regulations regarding technical breaks for players to rest for a few minutes between the first and second half. it seems that way should also be done in Qatar. because the hot weather can drain the stamina of players. especially for those who play with short breaks.

[Juggy777]

~snip~
I was watching a piece of news, but I don't know if it's real or maybe not, but it announced that perhaps for the next World Cup qualifiers, South America would expand the World Cup quotas to 6 places, if this is the case it will be very interesting , the curious thing is that it only said South America, for Europe it would also apply.

The next world cup, 2026, will be hosted in Canada, USA, and Mexico. All those 3 will be qualified because they're hosts. Also, there will be extra slots for all the confederations.

The 2026 World Cup will have 48 qualified teams instead of the 32 teams of 2022. So that's going to be an extra 16 teams for the next world cup, selected from all the confederations.

It will be the first time that some confederations will be able to qualify directly instead of having to go to play-offs.

Here's the detailed table with the new spots:

Excellent information, the fact of doing it in 3 countries is an experiment that FIFA wants to do to see how things can go, however the most benefited are those from Asia and I like that, also the addition of more countries by UEFA could guarantee that teams like Italy, Sweden if they can have more options to go to the World Cup, particularly I still feel sadness because these two teams do not go to QATAR, because they have a very good history and are actually very representative and they make many countries have many fans and want to revive actions that only they could do, as happened in USA94 with the third place of Sweden and the last World Cup that Italy won with a Zidane who hit an Italian.

I just realized that for the first time there were six teams from Asia (AFC) who managed to advance to the world cup. I think this is new history. I have high hopes for South Korea and Japan in this world cup. although the real challenge will definitely be felt for Korea and Japan because considering Qatar is a pretty hot country so I hope it won't be a problem. even some of my brothers who work in qatar say it's so hot there even at work there is someone who installs air conditioning outside the room. This will definitely be a challenge for a team from a country that has cold temperatures.

The hosts always gain automatic qualification, and on top of that there are 4 exclusive slots for AFC. Apart from these, Australia managed to win the playoff against Peru. So in total there are 6 countries from the AFC. All that said, South Korea and Japan are a joke. They have huge fanbase, but they never perform in major tournaments. They look completely clueless when they play against top teams such as Brazil or England.

And now coming to the weather, I don't think that there needs to be much concern. During evening time, the weather is much more tolerable. On top of that, the tournament is taking place during the winter season.

It's true, I think that the match between Australia and Peru was not that exciting, but this time for me, I was more for Australia than for Peru even though I am South American, I think that the kangaroos of the beautiful country need to do a good job in QATAR . The criticism for the oceanic country has been many, but there is still a long way to go before they can fix all those inconsistencies that could have been shown, I think they will give a good show and will be able to go very far in the World Cup.

I don’t know about you’ll but having more teams can make the World Cup dreadfully long and boring too, and many will avoid watching the initial matches as the big teams will probably be clashing later on only. Also I too felt that Italy should have made it this year, but in the end it felt like that they ran out of desire to play at the World Cup.

[nullama]

I don’t know about you’ll but having more teams can make the World Cup dreadfully long and boring too, and many will avoid watching the initial matches as the big teams will probably be clashing later on only. Also I too felt that Italy should have made it this year, but in the end it felt like that they ran out of desire to play at the World Cup.

Yeah, I agree. I'm not sure how the new format of the world cup will work. The first few matches will probably feel a bit like the qualification matches to be honest.

Hopefully they keep the competition entertaining, because the whole point of the qualification is to keep the level up in the world cup itself.

[Sithara007]

I don’t know about you’ll but having more teams can make the World Cup dreadfully long and boring too, and many will avoid watching the initial matches as the big teams will probably be clashing later on only. Also I too felt that Italy should have made it this year, but in the end it felt like that they ran out of desire to play at the World Cup.

Everyone is free to have their own opinion about the expansion of the world cup. Personally I would support the expansion, because I believe that addition of more teams means more diversity. I get bored when I watch the same teams again and again. And hopefully in 2026, none of the major teams would fail to qualify for the main tournament (similar to the case with Italy and Chile this time). If I was given a choice, then I would prefer a 64-team world cup, with representation from every nook and corner of the world.

[Ahli38]

I just realized that for the first time there were six teams from Asia (AFC) who managed to advance to the world cup. I think this is new history. I have high hopes for South Korea and Japan in this world cup. although the real challenge will definitely be felt for Korea and Japan because considering Qatar is a pretty hot country so I hope it won't be a problem. even some of my brothers who work in qatar say it's so hot there even at work there is someone who installs air conditioning outside the room. This will definitely be a challenge for a team from a country that has cold temperatures.

adaptation must be done as soon as possible by players from cold-weather countries. they can arrive early and try to get their bodies used to train and matches in the heat.
but usually, in official matches with the host country's weather being quite hot, there will be regulations regarding technical breaks for players to rest for a few minutes between the first and second half. it seems that way should also be done in Qatar. because the hot weather can drain the stamina of players. especially for those who play with short breaks.

yeah that's right. adaptation must be done by teams who are not used to the hot climate in qatar. like you said, the team can come early to prepare. and it seems that this is generally done in preparation every time before the world cup is held.

Now I'm curious if there are members here who are interested in vacationing in Qatar and buying full tickets to watch the World Cup match live later in Qatar?

[Daniel91]

I don’t know about you’ll but having more teams can make the World Cup dreadfully long and boring too, and many will avoid watching the initial matches as the big teams will probably be clashing later on only. Also I too felt that Italy should have made it this year, but in the end it felt like that they ran out of desire to play at the World Cup.

Yeah, I agree. I'm not sure how the new format of the world cup will work. The first few matches will probably feel a bit like the qualification matches to be honest.

Hopefully they keep the competition entertaining, because the whole point of the qualification is to keep the level up in the world cup itself.

FIFA obviously wants, for financial and marketing reasons, that as many national teams as possible can participate in the World Cup, and the interestingness and quality of the competition is less important to them.
It all comes down to profit in the end, as always.
I think that the fans will always be interested in the matches of their national teams, and that they will start to be interested in the rest of the competition only when the group stage of the competition is over.
It is really a shame that such a great national team, such as Italy, will not  participate in the World Cup, but I believe that they will surely participate in the next World Cup, because it will be much more easy to qualify, given the much larger number of participants.

[nullama]

FIFA obviously wants, for financial and marketing reasons, that as many national teams as possible can participate in the World Cup, and the interestingness and quality of the competition is less important to them.
It all comes down to profit in the end, as always.
I think that the fans will always be interested in the matches of their national teams, and that they will start to be interested in the rest of the competition only when the group stage of the competition is over.
It is really a shame that such a great national team, such as Italy, will not  participate in the World Cup, but I believe that they will surely participate in the next World Cup, because it will be much more easy to qualify, given the much larger number of participants.

Well, yeah, up to a point.

If the tournament ends up being similar to the UEFA nations league, then no one would bother to watch the games.

It's very different to watch your country in a friendly match or in a world cup qualifier, or at the final of the world cup.

The UEFA nations league is not as competitive for example, so it's not as exciting to watch as the world cup.

I hope they manage to keep the world cup as competitive as it has been.

[KTChampions]

FIFA obviously wants, for financial and marketing reasons, that as many national teams as possible can participate in the World Cup, and the interestingness and quality of the competition is less important to them.
It all comes down to profit in the end, as always.
I think that the fans will always be interested in the matches of their national teams, and that they will start to be interested in the rest of the competition only when the group stage of the competition is over.
It is really a shame that such a great national team, such as Italy, will not  participate in the World Cup, but I believe that they will surely participate in the next World Cup, because it will be much more easy to qualify, given the much larger number of participants.

If I remember correctly, the expansion of the number of participants is carried out mainly not by increasing the number of teams from Europe, but by increasing the number of teams from other regions. Therefore, although the situation will improve, there will still be a chance that several very strong teams from Europe will not get into the final part. And the fact that interest in the tournament is falling is obvious to everyone except officials. There is no point in watching most group games, they are completely pointless.

[Sithara007]

If I remember correctly, the expansion of the number of participants is carried out mainly not by increasing the number of teams from Europe, but by increasing the number of teams from other regions. Therefore, although the situation will improve, there will still be a chance that several very strong teams from Europe will not get into the final part. And the fact that interest in the tournament is falling is obvious to everyone except officials. There is no point in watching most group games, they are completely pointless.

Europe's representation is being increased by +3. So you can't really say that UEFA is being ignored during the expansion. A total of 16 new slots are created and out of that 3 is from Europe. I believe that it is fair. But CONMEBOL got a very unfair deal. They are the strongest confederation out there and for them, the increase is just +1.5. For the 2026 World Cup, there will be 6 teams from CONMEBOL. I would have liked at least 7 teams from that confederation. Everytime, a number of strong teams from South America miss out on qualification. 

[wheelz1200]

If I remember correctly, the expansion of the number of participants is carried out mainly not by increasing the number of teams from Europe, but by increasing the number of teams from other regions. Therefore, although the situation will improve, there will still be a chance that several very strong teams from Europe will not get into the final part. And the fact that interest in the tournament is falling is obvious to everyone except officials. There is no point in watching most group games, they are completely pointless.

Europe's representation is being increased by +3. So you can't really say that UEFA is being ignored during the expansion. A total of 16 new slots are created and out of that 3 is from Europe. I believe that it is fair. But CONMEBOL got a very unfair deal. They are the strongest confederation out there and for them, the increase is just +1.5. For the 2026 World Cup, there will be 6 teams from CONMEBOL. I would have liked at least 7 teams from that confederation. Everytime, a number of strong teams from South America miss out on qualification. 

I don't think anyone will ever be happy with the result of the spots given.  Someone will be happy and someone will think they got snubbed.  It's tough when you really don't have an apples to apples view on this having them matchup.

[Ratash]

I don’t know about you’ll but having more teams can make the World Cup dreadfully long and boring too, and many will avoid watching the initial matches as the big teams will probably be clashing later on only. Also I too felt that Italy should have made it this year, but in the end it felt like that they ran out of desire to play at the World Cup.

Everyone is free to have their own opinion about the expansion of the world cup. Personally I would support the expansion, because I believe that addition of more teams means more diversity. I get bored when I watch the same teams again and again. And hopefully in 2026, none of the major teams would fail to qualify for the main tournament (similar to the case with Italy and Chile this time). If I was given a choice, then I would prefer a 64-team world cup, with representation from every nook and corner of the world.

I agree with you the expansion should be a good thing many good teams fail to qualify to the world cup becaise a certain continent has only few seats in the world cup not to mention that the fans want to see their country play in such a big tournament this will be good for football and it will make it more popular and the competition more fierce.

[Joca97]

I just realized that for the first time there were six teams from Asia (AFC) who managed to advance to the world cup. I think this is new history. I have high hopes for South Korea and Japan in this world cup. although the real challenge will definitely be felt for Korea and Japan because considering Qatar is a pretty hot country so I hope it won't be a problem. even some of my brothers who work in qatar say it's so hot there even at work there is someone who installs air conditioning outside the room. This will definitely be a challenge for a team from a country that has cold temperatures.

I dont think Asian teams can do something on this world cup they just dont have that quality. Maybe they can advance the group somehow but thats the max i see from them. I still dont see how players will survive the hot weather in Qatar on world cup

[DanWalker]

I just realized that for the first time there were six teams from Asia (AFC) who managed to advance to the world cup. I think this is new history. I have high hopes for South Korea and Japan in this world cup. although the real challenge will definitely be felt for Korea and Japan because considering Qatar is a pretty hot country so I hope it won't be a problem. even some of my brothers who work in qatar say it's so hot there even at work there is someone who installs air conditioning outside the room. This will definitely be a challenge for a team from a country that has cold temperatures.

I dont think Asian teams can do something on this world cup they just dont have that quality. Maybe they can advance the group somehow but thats the max i see from them. I still dont see how players will survive the hot weather in Qatar on world cup

Yes, the temperature is obviously going to be a problem for certain players from certain countries. But the players will have to adapt.

Personally, I don't think any team from Asia is going to be doing very well. By doing very well I mean reaching the semi-finals of the world cup at least. But I do have hopes that they will perform more effectively than before. Korea holds the most promise for me. But realistically I don't think they will even reach the semi-finals. I see the leading contenders for this world cup as Croatia, France, England, Brazil, Argentina, and probably Germany. I am really looking forward to seeing a really stellar performance from Argentina this time.

[herurist]

I just realized that for the first time there were six teams from Asia (AFC) who managed to advance to the world cup. I think this is new history. I have high hopes for South Korea and Japan in this world cup. although the real challenge will definitely be felt for Korea and Japan because considering Qatar is a pretty hot country so I hope it won't be a problem. even some of my brothers who work in qatar say it's so hot there even at work there is someone who installs air conditioning outside the room. This will definitely be a challenge for a team from a country that has cold temperatures.

I dont think Asian teams can do something on this world cup they just dont have that quality. Maybe they can advance the group somehow but thats the max i see from them. I still dont see how players will survive the hot weather in Qatar on world cup

But at least having them at the World Cup will definitely boost some of their players, which is actually quite doable considering that when we talk about big leagues, it's actually very rare to have players from Asia, even if there are only counting fingers.
With their participation in the world cup, although it is indeed very difficult to compete, this will be more leverage for some players because all eyes will surely be on this big event which does not rule out some surprises in it.

[snipie]

If I remember correctly, the expansion of the number of participants is carried out mainly not by increasing the number of teams from Europe, but by increasing the number of teams from other regions. Therefore, although the situation will improve, there will still be a chance that several very strong teams from Europe will not get into the final part. And the fact that interest in the tournament is falling is obvious to everyone except officials. There is no point in watching most group games, they are completely pointless.

UEFA has 55 members in which 13 will play in Qatar (23.6%)
CAF has 54 members in which only 5 will participate (9.2%)
AFC has 46 members / 6 on Qatar (13%)
CONCACAF has 35 members / 4 on (11.4%)
OFC = 11 members / 0
CONMEBOL has 10 members / 4 on (40%)
This is before the expansion and since 1998, you can see clearly which teams in different confederations are considered luckier than the others. (slight change of pourcentage could be made since I didn't count 0.5 possibilities).
What happened with the new 48 proposal is to double the number of CAF, AFC, OFC and CONCACAF members allowed to join World Cup but increasing the number of CONMEBOL to 6.3 and UEFA to 16 made them favourites.
So to answer @Sithara007, CONMEBOL teams have a chance of 63.3% of qualifying to World Cup which is x2 European teams chances and x3.5 at least the rest of the world chances which is ridiculous and unfair imo regarding that this competition is dintended to allow most countries of the world get a chance to qualify and play internationally vs other teams in different continents. Otherwise, UEFA could pick 22 best teams + 10 CONMEBOL ones and they form Bi-Continental Cup that would way better to watch than current World Cup.
What makes WC (World Cup ) good is when you see surprises and weaker teams advance instead of favourite bigger ones.

[savetheFORUM]

I dont think Asian teams can do something on this world cup they just dont have that quality. Maybe they can advance the group somehow but thats the max i see from them. I still dont see how players will survive the hot weather in Qatar on world cup

Yes, the temperature is obviously going to be a problem for certain players from certain countries. But the players will have to adapt.

Personally, I don't think any team from Asia is going to be doing very well. By doing very well I mean reaching the semi-finals of the world cup at least. But I do have hopes that they will perform more effectively than before. Korea holds the most promise for me. But realistically I don't think they will even reach the semi-finals. I see the leading contenders for this world cup as Croatia, France, England, Brazil, Argentina, and probably Germany. I am really looking forward to seeing a really stellar performance from Argentina this time.

I agree about Asian teams because I am watching few countries closely for years and now feeling Asians are at bottom if we bring things by regions with Africans are also having much better quality from them and here we are not having any quality team just usual Japan and Korea are doing some better performance for decades and all others facing problems recently we have Australia which is also good but still need some good time for having better results.

Here about favorite team nothing is predictable because we have four months left in this event and now after few weeks European new soccer season is going to start which is also going to have big impact on this world cup because any injury or other trouble can bring down any team as if any good player is going to have things like this here before world cup.

[LUCKMCFLY]

I think it's better when a couple of strong teams miss the tournament due to the high level of competition than when the tournament turns into a huge number of meaningless games (due to a large difference in the teams' classes) and interesting games can only be expected in the 1/4 finals. Even in the current tournament, the group stage will not be very interesting, and in the next one everything will be much worse.

Again, I need to disagree with you. We are already having meaningless games. Even top ranked teams from AFC and CAF are unable to compete against teams from CONMEBOL and UEFA. I will give you one example. Remember the Russia vs Saudi Arabia match during last world cup? (inaugural match). Russia destroyed Saudi Arabia with a 5-0 margin. Now Russia is not a top ranking team from the UEFA. And yet the match was completely one sided, despite the fact that Saudi Arabia is one of the strongest AFC teams.

Then I do not understand why you write that you do not agree with me? You repeat what I write: too many pointless games. And taking into account the change in the format of the World Cup, there will be much more of them. My opinion is that the old format is better, and it would be even better to switch to a new format where there are no weak teams at all in the final part. And I do not agree with the fact that, for example, African teams are weak - there have often been good teams from this region in history that have performed well at the World Cups - Nigeria, Cameroon, Senegal, etc.

Well what happens is that we are used to seeing high-caliber games, in Europe all the games are exciting for me, just like in Conmebol, which for me is the most difficult tie in the world due to the enormous effort that is experienced both the teams and the players, of course I know that the Europeans will say that the most difficult is UEFA, but it is not the same to play in European stadiums, than to leave a relatively high country like Bolivia where the height takes away your breathing and it demands a lot of your lungs and after 2 days go to Venezuela in Maracaibo where the temperature is always very high, above 38°C, those are the things that make it more difficult and the only trip, even if it is by plane, exhausts .

I dont think Asian teams can do something on this world cup they just dont have that quality. Maybe they can advance the group somehow but thats the max i see from them. I still dont see how players will survive the hot weather in Qatar on world cup

Yes, the temperature is obviously going to be a problem for certain players from certain countries. But the players will have to adapt.

Personally, I don't think any team from Asia is going to be doing very well. By doing very well I mean reaching the semi-finals of the world cup at least. But I do have hopes that they will perform more effectively than before. Korea holds the most promise for me. But realistically I don't think they will even reach the semi-finals. I see the leading contenders for this world cup as Croatia, France, England, Brazil, Argentina, and probably Germany. I am really looking forward to seeing a really stellar performance from Argentina this time.

I agree about Asian teams because I am watching few countries closely for years and now feeling Asians are at bottom if we bring things by regions with Africans are also having much better quality from them and here we are not having any quality team just usual Japan and Korea are doing some better performance for decades and all others facing problems recently we have Australia which is also good but still need some good time for having better results.

Here about favorite team nothing is predictable because we have four months left in this event and now after few weeks European new soccer season is going to start which is also going to have big impact on this world cup because any injury or other trouble can bring down any team as if any good player is going to have things like this here before world cup.

The team that I hope a lot is from Japan, I don't know but since Japan had those legendary players I really liked their way of playing, I don't know if they remember Nakata, and from that spectacular World Cup that was in France 98, in fact they had such star players at the time that they made the iconic Nike commercial.