2022 FIFA World Cup - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2022 FIFA World Cup

Arabic: كَأسُ اَلعَالَمِ 2022 Gulf Arabic: كَاسُ اَلعَالَمِ ٢٠٢٢ The Qatar 2022 قطر ٢٠٢٢‎
2022 FIFA World Cup Logo
Tournament details
Host country	Qatar
Dates	20 November – 18 December
Teams	32 (from 5 confederations)
Venue(s)	8 (in 5 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Argentina (3rd title)
Runners-up	France
Third place	Croatia
Fourth place	[[Massachusetts {{{altlink}}}|Massachusetts]]
Tournament statistics
Matches played	64
Goals scored	176 (2.75 per match)
Attendance	3,404,252 (53,191 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Kylian Mbappé (6 goals)
Best player(s)	Lionel Messi
Best young player	Enzo Fernández
Best goalkeeper	Emiliano Martínez
Fair play award	England
← 2018 2026 →

The Qatar 2022, FIFA World Cup was the 22nd FIFA World Cup. It was hosted in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022. It was the first World Cup hosted in the Arab world,^[1] and the second to be hosted fully in Asia.^[a] This was the last World Cup played with a 32 team format. The tournament was played during the months of November and December to avoid the intense heat during the summer months in Qatar.^[2] The reigning champions were France.^[3]

There have been suspicions on whether Qatar earned hosting rights fairly. An investigation that was done by FIFA reported that Qatar earned hosting rights fairly. This investigation was criticized by Michael J. Garcia.^[4] Qatar was also criticized because of the treatment of the foreign workers preparing the World Cup stadiums.^[5][6]

Bidding[change | change source]

2022 FIFA bidding

Bidders	Votes
	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4
Qatar	11	10	11	14
United States	3	5	6	8
South Korea	4	5	5	—
Japan	3	2	—	—
Australia	1	—	—	—

Qualification[change | change source]

FIFA's six continental confederations have their own qualifying tournaments. All 211 associations are able to enter qualification. Qatar, qualified automatically because they are the hosts. Qatar still plays in the first two rounds of AFC qualification because it is also qualification for the 2023 AFC Asian Cup.^[7][8] The previous World Cup champions France will participate in qualification as normal.^[9] Saint Lucia, North Korea, American Samoa, Samoa all withdrew because of safety reasons related to the COVID-19 pandemic, with North Korea withdrawing after already playing matches. Tonga withdrew because of the 2022 Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha'apai eruption and tsunami. Russia was suspended by FIFA because of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Vanuatu and Cook Islands both withdrew because of COVID-19 cases in their squads, with Cook Islands withdrawing after already playing matches.

The amount of available World Cup slots for each confederation was discussed by the FIFA Executive Committee on 30 May 2015 in Zürich.^[10] The committee decided that the slots would be the same as 2018.^[11]

• CAF (Africa): 5
• AFC (Asia): 4 or 5^[b] (not including Qatar, the hosts)
• UEFA (Europe): 13
• CONCACAF (North and Central America and Caribbean): 3 or 4^[b]
• OFC (Oceania): 0 or 1^[b]
• CONMEBOL (South America): 4 or 5^[b]
• Hosts: 1

Qualified teams[change | change source]

Team	Qualified as
Qatar	Host nation
Germany	UEFA Group J winners
Denmark	UEFA Group F winners
Brazil	CONMEBOL winners
France	UEFA Group D winners
Belgium	UEFA Group E winners
Croatia	UEFA Group H winners
Spain	UEFA Group B winners
Serbia	UEFA Group A winners
England	UEFA Group I winners
Switzerland	UEFA Group C winners
Netherlands	UEFA Group G winners
Argentina	CONMEBOL runners-up
Iran	AFC Third Round Group A winners
South Korea	AFC Third Round Group A runners-up
Japan	AFC Third Round Group B runners-up
Saudi Arabia	AFC Third Round Group B winners
Ecuador	CONMEBOL fourth place
Uruguay	CONMEBOL third place
Canada	CONCACAF Third Round winners
Ghana	CAF Third Round winner
Senegal	CAF Third Round winner
Portugal	UEFA Second Round winner
Poland	UEFA Second Round winner
Tunisia	CAF Third Round winner
Morocco	CAF Third Round winner
Cameroon	CAF Third Round winner
United States	CONCACAF Third Round third place
Mexico	CONCACAF Third Round runners-up
Wales	UEFA Second Round winners
Australia	AFC v CONMEBOL play-off winners
Costa Rica	CONCACAF v OFC play-off winners

Officiating[change | change source]

On 19 May 2022, FIFA announced the list of 36 referees, and 69 assistant referees and 24 video assistant referees for the tournament. Of the 36 referees, FIFA included two each from Argentina, Brazil, England and France.^[12][13] For the first time women referees will referee games at a major men's tournament.

Stéphanie Frappart from France, Rwandan Salima Mukansanga and Yoshimi Yamashita from Japan became the first female referees to be appointed to a men's World Cup. They will be joined by three female assistant referees, also a first. Frappart oversaw the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup Final.^[14]

Venues[change | change source]

Lusail	Al Khor	Doha
Lusail Iconic Stadium	Al Bayt Stadium	Stadium 974	Al Thumama Stadium
Capacity: 80,000	Capacity: 60,000[15]	Capacity: 40,000[16]	Capacity: 40,000[17]
Host cities in Qatar Lusail Doha Al-Khor Al-Wakrah Al-Rayyan		Stadiums in Doha area Education 974 Khalifa Thumama
Al Rayyan			Al Wakrah
Education City Stadium	Ahmad bin Ali Stadium[c]	Khalifa International Stadium	Al Janoub Stadium
Capacity: 45,350[18]	Capacity: 44,740[19]	Capacity: 40,000[20] (upgraded)	Capacity: 40,000[21]

Final draw[change | change source]

The final draw was in the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center in Doha, Qatar,^[22] on 1 April 2022,^[23] 19:00 AST, before the qualifiers finished. The two winners of the inter-confederation play-offs and the winner of the Path A of the UEFA play-offs were not known at the time of the draw.^[24]

For the draw, the 32 teams were put into four pots based on their FIFA World Rankings of 31 March 2022.^[25] The teams in Pot 1 were the hosts, Qatar (who were automatically seeded as A1) and the best seven teams. The teams in Pot 2 were the next best eight teams, with the next best eight teams into Pot 3. The teams in Pot 4 were the five lowest-ranked teams, the two inter-confederation play-off winners and the UEFA Path A play-off winner. Teams from the same confederation could not be in the same group except UEFA, which allowed maximum two teams in the same group. The Pot 1 teams were automatically seeded as 1.^[26] The pots for the draw are shown below.^[27]

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Qatar (51) (hosts)  Brazil (1)  Belgium (2)  France (3)  Argentina (4)  England (5)  Spain (7)  Portugal (8)	Mexico (9)  Netherlands (10)  Denmark (11)  Germany (12)  Uruguay (13)  Switzerland (14)  United States (15)  Croatia (16)	Senegal (20)  Iran (21)  Japan (23)  Morocco (24)  Serbia (25)  Poland (26)  South Korea (29)  Tunisia (35)	Cameroon (37)  Canada (38)  Ecuador (46)  Saudi Arabia (49)  Ghana (60)  Wales (18) [d]  Costa Rica (31) [e]  Australia (42) [f]

Group stage[change | change source]

Tie-breaking criteria for group play

The ranking of teams in the group stage is determined as follows:[28] Points; Goal difference; Number of goals scored; Points in the matches played between the tied teams; Goal difference in the matches played between the tied teams; Number of goals scored in the matches played between the tied teams; Fair play points: Yellow card: −1 point; Indirect red card (second yellow card): −3 points; Direct red card: −4 points; Yellow card and direct red card: −5 points; Drawing of lots.

Group A[change | change source]

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Netherlands	3	2	1	0	5	1	+4	7	Advanced to knockout stage
2	Senegal	3	2	0	1	5	4	+1	6
3	Ecuador	3	1	1	1	4	3	+1	4
4	Qatar (H)	3	0	0	3	1	7	−6	0

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Group B[change | change source]

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	England	3	2	1	0	9	2	+7	7	Advanced to knockout stage
2	United States	3	1	2	0	2	1	+1	5
3	Iran	3	1	0	2	4	7	−3	3
4	Wales	3	0	1	2	1	6	−5	1

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Group C[change | change source]

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Argentina	3	2	0	1	5	2	+3	6	Advanced to knockout stage
2	Poland	3	1	1	1	2	2	0	4
3	Mexico	3	1	1	1	2	3	−1	4
4	Saudi Arabia	3	1	0	2	3	5	−2	3

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Group D[change | change source]

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	France	3	2	0	1	6	3	+3	6	Advanced to knockout stage
2	Australia	3	2	0	1	3	4	−1	6
3	Tunisia	3	1	1	1	1	1	0	4
4	Denmark	3	0	1	2	1	3	−2	1

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Group E[change | change source]

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Japan	3	2	0	1	4	3	+1	6	Advanced to knockout stage
2	Spain	3	1	1	1	9	3	+6	4
3	Germany	3	1	1	1	6	5	+1	4
4	Costa Rica	3	1	0	2	3	11	−8	3

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Group F[change | change source]

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Morocco	3	2	1	0	4	1	+3	7	Advanced to knockout stage
2	Croatia	3	1	2	0	4	1	+3	5
3	Belgium	3	1	1	1	1	2	−1	4
4	Canada	3	0	0	3	2	7	−5	0

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Group G[change | change source]

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Brazil	3	2	0	1	3	1	+2	6	Advanced to knockout stage
2	Switzerland	3	2	0	1	4	3	+1	6
3	Cameroon	3	1	1	1	4	4	0	4
4	Serbia	3	0	1	2	5	8	−3	1

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Group H[change | change source]

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Portugal	3	2	0	1	6	4	+2	6	Advanced to knockout stage
2	South Korea	3	1	1	1	4	4	0	4
3	Uruguay	3	1	1	1	2	2	0	4
4	Ghana	3	1	0	2	5	7	−2	3

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Knockout stage[change | change source]

In the knockout stage, if a match is tied at the end of 90 minutes of normal playing time, extra time will be played (two halves that are 15 minutes each). If it is still tied after extra time, the match will be decided by a penalty shoot-out.^[28]

Bracket[change | change source]

Round of 16

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

3 December – Al Rayyan (Khalifa)

Netherlands

3

9 December – Lusail

United States

1

Netherlands

2 (3)

3 December – Al Rayyan (Ahmad bin Ali)

Argentina

2 (4)

Argentina

2

13 December – Lusail

Australia

1

Argentina

3

5 December – Al Wakrah

Croatia

0

Japan

1 (1)

9 December – Al Rayyan (Education)

Croatia

1 (3)

Croatia

1 (4)

5 December – Doha (974)

Brazil

1 (2)

Brazil

4

18 December – Lusail

South Korea

1

Argentina

3 (4)

4 December – Al Khor

France

3 (2)

England

3

10 December – Al Khor

Senegal

0

England

1

4 December – Doha (Al Thumama)

France

2

France

3

14 December – Al Khor

Poland

1

France

2

6 December – Al Rayyan (Education)

Morocco

0

Third place play-off

Morocco

0 (3)

10 December – Doha (Al Thumama)

17 December – Al Rayyan (Khalifa)

Spain

0 (0)

Morocco

1

Croatia

2

6 December – Lusail

Portugal

0

Morocco

1

Portugal

6

Switzerland

1

Round of 16[change | change source]

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Quarter-finals[change | change source]

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