Text by Corina Tan
The FIFA World Cup also known simply as the World Cup, is the world’s most prestigious association football tournament and the single most widely viewed sporting event globally. The championship is awarded every four years, with its current title holding champion being France who won the cup in 2018 when it was hosted in Russia.
This year’s World Cup will be hosted in Qatar with a list of 32 outstanding nations who qualified to enter. Through a draw that was held in Doha this pass April, 29 qualified teams, two intercontinental play-off slot placeholders and one European play-off placeholder were divided into eight groups of four for the final competition.
The FIFA World Cup 2022 opening ceremony will be held on November 20th , 2022, with group stage matches beginning November 21st held across several different stadiums in Qatar until December 2nd . The beginning of Round 16 matches will then commence on Dec 3rd , leading into the Quarter Finals and then the Semi Finals. The World Cup 2022 final match is scheduled to be held on December 18th at the Lusail Stadium.
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Many of the top names in football are keen to represent their countries and break records. In a recent interview, Robert Lewandowski who is a stellar footballer for Poland, scoring 25 goals in 19 games, including 9 goals in matches on the road to Qatar, said that he was looking forward to playing Argentina with legend Leo Messi heading the squad. He was of the opinion that Argentina is one of the favourites to win the tournament, and a tough opponent to beat. Poland and Argentina were drafted into Group C along with Mexico and Saudi Arabia.
World Cup 2022 Groups are as follows:
Group A
Qatar
Ecuador
Senegal
Netherlands
Group B
England
Iran
USA
Wales
Group C
Argentina
Saudi Arabia
Mexico
Poland
Group D
France
Denmark
Tunisia
Australia
Group E
Spain
Germany
Japan
Costa Rica
Group F
Belgium
Canada
Morocco
Croatia
Group G
Brazil
Serbia
Switzerland
Cameroon
Group H
Portugal
Ghana
Uruguay
Republic of Korea
As of 2018, the FIFA World Cup has held 21 tournaments with 79 national teams competing. Brazil is the only team in the world that has played every single time and has been the biggest winner, having won five times. Other World Cup winners are Germany, Italy (with four titles each), Argentina, France, Uruguay (with two titles each), and England and Spain (with one title each).
For more information, please visit fifa.com/worldcup
