The Qatar2022, 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]
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]
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.
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]
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]