5 minute read
The Tournament
The World Cup Finals in November this year will hold 32 teams divided into 8 groups, consisting of 4 teams. The 32 teams who have qualified for the Finals had to do so in their continental qualifiers, which began all the way back in 2019. Each continent is allocated a specific number of spots for the tournament, Europe is given 13 places, South America 4.5 places, Nort and Central America 3.5 places, Africa 5 places, Asia 4.5 places and Oceania 0.5 places.
The country hosting the World Cup is given an automatic pass to the World Cup Finals.
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The decimal place (the number of spots) represents qualification via the playoffs as the team from that continent is not guaranteed a spot in the World Cup Finals. For example, South America’s 4.5 can turn into 5 places if a team from their pool wins their play-off. It can also turn into 4 places if they lose their play-off.
WIN = 3 POINTS DRAW = 1 POINT LOSS = 0 POINTS
Europe – 13 places Union of European Football Associations (UEFA)
55 European nations are sorted into 10 groups (groups of 5 and 6) and fight for 10 automatic qualification spots. Each team plays each other twice and whoever finishes top of their group is awarded the automatic qualification spot.
QUALIFIED: Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Croatia, England, Germany
The 10 second placed teams, as well as the two-best ranked group winners from the 2020-21 UEFA Nations League who did not finish second in their qualifying group all enter the play-offs to decide who gets the final 3 spots. These 12 teams are split into 3 pools of 4 teams, consisting of a semi-final and a grand-final. The winners of each get a ticket to the World Cup. Russia was kicked out of this pool due to the invasion of Ukraine which gave Poland a walkover to the grand-final match.
QUALIFIED: Wales, Poland, Portugal
North & Central America – 3.5 Places Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association of Football (CONCACAF)
CONCACAF qualification to the World Cup is quite different to Europe and South America as they only have 35 FIFA-affiliated teams. The coronavirus pandemic also meant the format was reworked. The top 5 ranked teams in CONCACAF skipped the first 2 rounds of qualification while nations ranked 6 to 35 were required to compete. These 30 teams were divided into 6 groups of 5 and were only required to play each other once. The winners of each group progressed.
PROGRESSED: El Salvador, Canada, Curacao, Panama, Haiti, St Kitts and Nevis
The winners were then drawn against each other in an elimination play-off to decide who will progress to the next stage.
PROGRESSED: El Salvador, Canada, Panama
The winners and the top 5 ranked CONCACAF nations were to play each other home and away. The top 3 would go on to earn their place in the World Cup, while 4th place team would be required to play and in the intercontinental play-off match against the Oceania play-off team.
QUALIFIED: Canada, Mexico, U.S, Costa Rica (Play-off win against New Zealand)
Africa – 5 Places Confederation of African Football (CAF)
There are 54 FIFA affiliated African teams, vying for a spot at the World Cup. The 28 lowest ranked nations played two-legged games with the winners joining the other 26 African nations. These 40 teams are divided into 10 groups of 4 teams with the winners of each group progressing into the head-to-head round.
PROGRESSED: Algeria, Tunisia, Nigeria, Cameroon, Mali, Egypt, Ghana, Senegal, Morocco, Congo DR
These are once again two-legged ties with the winners of each match, progressing to the World Cup Finals in Qatar.
QUALIFIED: Cameroon, Morocco, Senegal, Ghana, Tunisia
Only 9 of the 11 FIFA affiliated Oceania national teams took part in OFC qualifying. The first round was an elimination match between the two lowest ranked OFC teams, the winner progressing to the next round.
PROGRESSED: Cook Islands (via Tonga forfeit)
The remaining 8 teams were split into 2 groups of 4 teams playing each other once, the top 2 nations in each group progressing.
PROGRESSED: Solomon Islands, Tahiti, New Zealand, Papa New Guinea
The format for the next round was 2 semi-finals and a grand final. The winner of the grand-final would go on to the intercontinental play-off against CONCACAF play-off team. New Zealand had their World Cup journey cut short, losing to Costa Rica.
South America – 4.5 Places South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL)
South American qualifying is a more straightforward process. There are 10 nations competing for 4 automatic qualification spots and 1 play-off spot. Like Europe, each team plays each other twice to determine where they finish on the ladder. The top 4 achieve automatic qualification while 5th spot must win their intercontinental play-off against an Asian (AFC) team that has not automatically qualified. Peru failed to qualify for the World Cup, losing their intercontinental play-off against Australia.
QUALIFIED: Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Ecuador
The AFC qualification process is similarly complicated to CAF qualifiers, the 12 lowest ranked AFC teams play two-legged games, with the winners progressing to the next round. The 6 winners then joined the other 34 Asian nations, drawn into 8 groups of 5 teams. The 7 group winners and the 5 best runners-up progressed to the third round. Even though Qatar won their group, they did not have to participate in the next round of qualifiers since they are the host nation of the World Cup.
PROGRESSED: China, Syria, Australia, IR Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Japan, UAE, Vietnam, South Korea, Lebanon The final group round consists of the remaining 12 nations that would be placed in 2 groups of 6. 10 games would be played in which the group winners and runners-up earning their spot in the World Cup.
QUALIFIED: IR Iran, South Korea, Japan, Saudi Arabia The 2 teams that finished third would meet in a one match play-off. The winner of this match would progress to the intercontinental play-off against the South American play-off team. QUALIFIED: Australia (Play-off win against Peru)
