WORLD CUP 2022. Canada validated its ticket for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar after its big victory on Sunday March 26 against Jamaica (4-0). A historic performance for Jonathan David’s teammates. Find the latest news from the next World Cup.
[Mis à jour le 28 mars 2022 à 16h31] Canada’s last World Cup qualification dates back to 1986. 36 years later, they are back! Canada won its ticket to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar overnight from Sunday to Monday. The Canadians only needed one victory and against Jamaica, Jonathan David and his teammates made short work of their opponents (4-0) to validate their place for the World Cup. A historic qualification for Canada, which will play its second World Cup after 1986.
After winning their ticket to Qatar, John Herdman, coach of Canada is already planning for 2026 when the Canadians will be the host country of the World Cup: “I told the guys we needed to qualify in 2022 to lay the groundwork for 2026. With the investments that come with a World Cup, we needed to qualify in order to be truly competitive in our World Cup. .” As for the players, they do not want to make an appearance in Qatar, as Alistair Johnson, defender of CF Montreal, pointed out: “It’s a long road and I hope we can continue this momentum over the summer by playing good games to continue our preparation to get there not just to show up, but also to deliver good performance.
At the moment, 20 countries have qualified for this World Cup, including the host country, Qatar, but also Brazil, France, Germany, England and Iran. The Canadians, who are the 20th to qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar at the moment, joined the two new South American nations qualified this weekend: Ecuador and Uruguay. There are still 12 tickets to be awarded for the World Cup, including three in Europe where the play-off finals will take place on Tuesday 29 between the winners of the semi-finals: Portugal – North Macedonia, Poland – Sweden. Wales will have to wait for the postponement of the meeting between Scotland and Ukraine to know their opponent.
The World Cup will start on November 21, an unusual date due to the climatic conditions in Qatar which forced Fifa to organize the competition in the middle of winter. Consequently, the calendars of the various championships will also be turned upside down and the preparation phase will be delicate for all the nations. In its press release to present the modalities of the draw, Fifa tried to reassure the nations by explaining that “the group stage of the 2022 World Cup will be spread over 12 days, with four matches per day. The teams will benefit optimal rest time”.
A total of 32 teams, including 13 European, will participate in the 2022 World Cup. With Qatar already assured of its participation as the host country, 31 other countries must therefore obtain their qualification in the coming weeks, through the qualifiers organized on each continent. Here are the countries guaranteed to participate in the competition:
- Qatar (host country)
- Germany
- Denmark
- Brazil
- France
- Belgium
- Serbia
- Spain
- Croatia
- Swiss
- England
- Netherlands
- Argentina
- Iran
- South Korea
- Japan
- Saudi Arabia
- Ecuador
- Uruguay
- Canada
The qualifying phase for the World Cup is over in the Europe zone. The play-off phase started on Thursday March 24 with the semi-finals and the surprise elimination of Italy, despite having won the last Euro. The Squadra Azzura lost against North Macedonia. The winners of the semi-finals will meet in the final on Tuesday March 29 (also in a dry match) on March 29, 2022. The Scotland – Ukraine meeting has been postponed due to the current context. The list of teams for Europe still in contention: Scotland, North Macedonia, Portugal, Poland, Sweden, Ukraine, Wales.
Play-offs (or more precisely a 3rd round) are also scheduled in Africa on March 25 and 29 with the following teams: Mali, Egypt, Morocco, Senegal, Ghana, DR Congo, Algeria, Cameroon, Nigeria and Tunisia.
To discover all the details of the play-offs for this 2022 World Cup, with the complete calendar and the results, go to our dedicated article:
• Europe:
Europe offers 13 qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup. Prior to the play-offs, qualifying was organized by UEFA in a single round, with a series of home and away matches in ten groups. Here is the final ranking of these qualifiers.
• Africa:
Africa will have 5 qualifiers at the end of qualifying. The playoffs were held in three rounds. The second is finished (see the ranking below) and the first of each group are qualified for the third round of final play-offs. A final round with round-trip elimination encounters.
• Asia:
Asia will have 5 or 6 qualifiers. Qatar, the host country, is already qualified but participates in the meetings which also count as a qualifying round for the Asian Cup 2023 in China. The playoffs are organized in 4 rounds. For the current third round, the first two of each group will be directly qualified for the World Cup. The two third-place finishers face each other in the fourth round for a place in the inter-confederation play-offs.
Australia is competing in the World Cup qualifiers in Asia. Oceania for its part will have 1 or 0 qualified. Qualifications are underway to secure a place for the inter-confederation play-offs.
North America, Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF) will have 3 or 4 qualifiers. After several phases, a final round is underway in a single group. The first three will qualify for the World Cup and the fourth can participate in the inter-confederation play-offs.
South America (CONMEBOL) will have 4 or 5 qualifiers. The qualifications are organized in a single qualifying group with home and away matches. The first four are directly qualified for the World Cup, the fifth for the inter-confederation play-offs.
It was in December 2010 that Qatar was named host country of this World Cup, being preferred to the four other candidates: Australia, Japan, South Korea and the United States. A controversial choice which has continued, over the years, to give rise to controversy against a backdrop of accusations of corruption at the time of appointment, of slavery on the construction sites of the stadiums, and on the climate of the country. Given the high heat recorded in summer (the period when the competition is usually played), sometimes with peaks of 50°C, this 2022 World Cup has also had to be postponed to new dates.
To cope with these climatic constraints, FIFA has indeed decided to organize this World Cup in winter, for the first time in its history. The date of the opening match has thus been set for November 21, 2022, while the grand final will take place on December 18, 2022, Qatar’s national day.
Latest news around the 2022 World Cup
The group stage of the 2022 World Cup will take place from November 21 to December 2. The first two of each group will qualify for the round of 16, scheduled for December 3, 4, 5 and 6. It will then be time for the quarter-finals, scheduled for December 9 and 10, then the semi-finals, on December 13 and 14. The match for third place will take place on December 17 and the final on Sunday December 18, one week before Christmas.
On its website, Fifa explains that “payments for tickets allocated during the first sales period with random selection procedure (draw), which ended on February 8, 2022, are no longer accepted. Fans can re-apply for FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ tickets during the “first-come, first-served” sales phase of the sales phase (1) which begins on 23 March 2022 at 11:00 a.m. CET / 1:00 p.m. Doha time and ends on March 29, 2022 at 11:00 a.m. CET / 12:00 p.m. (noon) Doha time. During this sales period, tickets will be allocated on a “first come, first served” basis and ticket purchases are treated as a real-time transaction (subject to availability). Ticket applicants will immediately receive confirmation that their order has been fulfilled.”