The 22nd edition of the FIFA World Cup will take place in Qatar from November 21st to December 18th, 2022. In a total of 64 matches, 32 men's national football teams will compete against each other. Due to the summer heat in Qatar, for the first time ever the World Cup is scheduled in winter with a reduced timeframe. France is the defending champion of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Qatar - Current time & time differenceThe time in Qatar is 8 hours ahead of the time in New York City (U.S. Eastern Time), 11 hours ahead of the time in Los Angeles (U.S. Pacific Time) and 9 hours ahead of the U.S. Central Time. Furthermore, it is 8 hours behind the time in Sydney (Australia) and 3 hours ahead of the time in London (England). All matches will be kicked off between 1 p.m. and 10 p.m. Qatar time.
Qatar was able to beat the USA, South Korea, Japan and Australia in 2010 in its application to host the 22nd World Cup. Thus, the following 8 stadiums of Qatar are planned to be used for the football matches.
When the World Cup was allocated to Qatar, there were various points of criticism, including the lack of Qatar's football tradition, the climatic conditions and the interpretation of human rights.
Qatar is as host automatically qualified as a participating nation. The remaining 31 teams will be determined by qualifying tournaments and intercontinental matches within the six continental federations. The qualification for the final round of the 2022 FIFA World Cup will take place from 2019 to 2022.
Due to the increase in the number of participants scheduled for the 2026 FIFA World Cup from 32 up to 48 teams, it was initially considered to also already involve 48 teams in the 2022 FIFA World Cup. In May 2019, however, this was finally ruled out.
In the wake of Russia's war against the Ukraine since February 24, 2022, the world soccer federation FIFA and UEFA have excluded Russian teams from all competitions until further notice, which is why the 2022 World Cup will take place without Russia.
Qatar is an arabic country on a peninsula with a population of approximately 2.6 million people. It is ruled as a monarchy. The landscape mainly consists of desert and beaches, the capital Doha is located at the coast. Arabic is the official language of Qatar, commercial languages are also Persian and English.
The following table contains all previous World Champions, sorted by the number of won World Championships or titles.
| Ranking | Country | Number of championship titles | Year(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Brazil | 5 | |
| 2. | Germany | 4 | |
| 3. | Italy | 4 | |
| 4. | France | 2 | |
| 5. | Argentina | 2 | |
| 6. | Uruguay | 2 | |
| 7. | United Kingdom | 1 | |
| 8. | Spain | 1 |
The first World Cup was held in Uruguay in 1930.