FIFA Announces Procedures for the World Cup 2022 Draw

Doha, March 31 (QNA) - Football fans all over the world will turn their sights to Qatar on Friday for the World Cup draw. Only three teams are yet to qualify for the World Cup. Teams were divided into four different pots based on their FIFA ranking for March, with the highest-ranked teams in pot 1, and the lowest-ranked in pot 4. There will be eight teams in each pot. Pot 1 will have Qatar as the host, Brazil, Belgium, France, Argentina, England, Spain, Portugal. Pot 2 includes The Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Uruguay, Croatia, Mexico, and the US. Pot 3 meanwhile includes Senegal, Iran, Japan, Morocco, Serbia, Poland, South Korea, and Tunisia. Pot 4 includes Canada, Cameroon, Saudi Arabia, Ecuador, Ghana, (the winner from Wales, Ukraine, Mexico), (the winner from Peru, Australia, and the UAE), and the winner from Costa Rica and New Zealand. The full details of the draw were set following the release of Marchs ranking. Fans will be able to find out their national team’s path towards the title. 29 of the 32 teams will know their group after the draw. The remaining three teams will be decided in May and June. The draw will start with pot 1 and end at pot 4. Each pot must be emptied before moving on to the next one. After drawing a team’s name from the pot, another ball will be drawn to indicate which group will the team lie in. Teams from the same continent will not be draw from the same group, except for Europe. Two European teams will compete with one another in five of the eight groups. The group stage will last for 12 days, with four matches a day. This will allow all teams to recover before their next match. The close proximity of the stadiums will also work in favor of the fans and the media. Although the final draw will determine the groups, the schedule of the final matches will be confirmed after the stadiums are designated and the match times are determined. This will result in the availability of more specific information about the kick-off times of matches, which will be useful to fans watching the matches from their homes, as well as fans who will attend the tournament matches in Qatar. This additional flexibility will not affect any technical aspects regardless of the timing of the match and the location of the stadium it is held in, taking into account the proximity of the locations of the 2022 World Cup stadiums and the moderate temperature in Qatar during November and December. Qatar will host the finals of the FIFA World Cup for the first time in its history and the history of the Middle East. In addition to that, it will be the first time the tournament will be held in Winter from Nov. 21-Dec.18, 2022. The opening match of FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 will be held in Nov. 21, 2022, at Al Bayt Stadium. It will start at 10pm Makkah time while the final match will take place on Dec. 18, 2022, at Lusail Stadium. The draw ceremony will witness the participation of 2000 guests, as FIFA World Cup champions, the Brazilian Cafu and the German Lothar Matthaus, along with six other assistants, will participate in the final draw to reveal the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 groups, which will be hosted by the eight World Cup stadiums at the end of this year. The group of assistants during the final draw ceremony includes football stars: Qatar's Adel Ahmed Malalla, Algeria's Rabah Madjer, Iran's Ali Daei, Serbia/Mexico's Bora Milutinovic, Nigeria's Jay-Jay Okocha, and Australia's Tim Cahill. The former Brazilian National Team star Cafu is participating in the final draw of the World Cup for the third time and is the only player to have participated in three final matches in three consecutive editions of the World Cup in 1994, 1998 and 2002, during which he succeeded in winning the championship twice. The list of assistants also includes a group of illustrious names in the world of football. Matthaus captained West Germany to victory in 1990. Okocha was a playmaking midfielder who helped Nigeria qualify for their first FIFA World Cup in 1994 and won the Olympic title in Atlanta in 1996. Tim Cahill scored Australia’s first-ever FIFA World Cup finals goal against Japan in 2006 and also represented his country in 2010, 2014 and 2018. Bora Milutinovic is the only coach to have managed at five consecutive editions of the FIFA World Cup with different teams: Mexico in 1986, Costa Rica in 1990, USA in 1994, Nigeria in 1998 and China PR in 2002. Three prominent names for the region are assisting in the draw for the 1st edition of the World Cup in the Middle East, led by the representative of the host country former Qatari defender Adel Ahmed Malalla, who participated in his country's team in the FIFA World Youth Championship in 1981, when Qatar won the silver medal, and at the Men’s Olympic Football Tournament in 1984. Meanwhile, Rabah Madjer led Algeria to one of the biggest World Cup upsets in the tournaments history when he scored the opening goal in his sides 2-1 win over West Germany, whereas former Iran forward Ali Daei was the leading scorer in international football before being surpassed by Cristiano Ronaldo last September. Besides these eight assistants, the draw will be run by a team that includes football analyst and former England player Jermaine Jenas, British-Jamaican sports anchor Samantha Johnson and two-time Women's World Cup champion Carli Lloyd. (QNA)