FIFA World Cup 2022 Power Rankings: USMNT tumble after awful month; Brazil, Argentina the favorites

Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Mauritania, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt, in a letter, asked FIFA to replace Qatar as World Cup Host, calling the country as a "base of terrorism". In October 2017, Lieutenant General Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, deputy head of Dubai Police and General Security, wrote about the crisis on Twitter in Arabic; saying "If the World Cup leaves Qatar, Qatar's crisis will be over … because the crisis is created to get away from it". According to media reports, the message appeared to imply that the Saudi-led blockade of Qatar was only enacted due to Qatar hosting the world's biggest football event. In reaction to media coverage of his tweet, Dhahi Khalfan tweeted; "I said Qatar is faking a crisis and claims it's besieged so it could get away from the burdens of building expensive sports facilities for the World Cup". UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said Dhahi Khalfan had been misunderstood in media coverage.

FIFA confirmed the group stage venue and kick-off times on 1 April 2022, following the draw. On 11 August, it was confirmed that Qatar vs Ecuador had been brought forward one day, now becoming the tournament's opening match, while Senegal vs Netherlands, which would have opened the tournament under the original schedule, had been reallocated to the freed-up timeslot. Stadium 974, formerly known as Ras Abu Aboud, is the seventh FIFA World Cup 2022 venue to be completed by the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy .

One of the standout performers of Italy’s Euro 2020 triumph and adding further bewilderment to their failure to reach Qatar this time around. As a result, the world will be denied the chance to see the rapidly-improving box-to-box midfielder at the tournament. Part of their improvement is due to the presence of highly decorated Real Madrid and former Bayern Munich defender David Alaba.

However, despite the glut of talent on show, spare a thought for those teams who failed to qualify, and in particular, the stars who will miss out on all the fun and games at the tournament. Are also struggling but a strong run of results for Iran in the international break suggests it could be all to play for. The season will start a week earlier than normal on August , with 16 matchdays taking place up to the weekend of November 12/13, before the tournament แข่งขันบอลโลก kicks off on November 20. England will now feature on the second day with their Group B match against Iran scheduled to take place just eight days after the Premier League shuts down on Monday November 21 with a 1pm UK time kick-off. The tournament was originally set to begin a day later with Senegal's game against the Netherlands at Al Thumama Stadium but Qatar's match was moved forward in August to allow them to open their home tournament.

Teams from the same confederation could not be drawn into the same group except for UEFA teams, for which there was at least one and no more than two per group. This principle also applied to the placeholder teams, with constraints applying based on the confederation of both potential winners of each play-off tie. The draw started with pot 1 and ended with pot 4, with each team selected then allocated into the first available group alphabetically.

In the 2015 FIFA corruption case, Swiss officials, operating under information from the United States Department of Justice, arrested many senior FIFA officials in Zurich, Switzerland. The arrests continued in the United States, where several FIFA officers were arrested, and FIFA buildings were raided. The arrests were made on the information of at least a $150 million corruption and bribery scandal. The European Union's Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy in the World 2021 noted Qatar's labour law reforms that had incorporated non-discriminatory minimum wage systems and removal of the Kafala system in 2021.

Due to Qatar's intense summer heat, this World Cup will be held from late-November to mid-December, making it the first tournament not to be held in May, June, or July and to take place in the northern autumn; it will be played in a reduced timeframe of around 29 days. The first match played at the tournament will be contested between Qatar and Ecuador at Al Bayt Stadium, Al Khor. The final is due to be held on 18 December 2022, which also is Qatar National Day. The climate conditions caused some to call hosting the tournament in Qatar infeasible, with initial plans for air-conditioned stadiums giving way to a potential date switch from summer to winter.

On 9 December 2019, the World Anti-Doping Agency handed Russia a four-year ban from all major sporting events, after RUSADA was found non-compliant for handing over manipulated lab data to investigators. The Russian national team were still permitted to enter qualification, as the ban only applied to the final tournament to decide the world champions. A team representing Russia, which uses the Russian flag and anthem, could not participate under the WADA decision whilst the ban is active.

The position for the team within the group would then be drawn , with the pot 1 teams automatically drawn into position 1 of each group. Some investigations found that Qatar sought an edge in securing hosting by hiring a former CIA officer turned private contractor, Kevin Chalker, to spy on rival bid teams and key football officials who picked the winner in 2010. The bidding procedure to host the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups began in January 2009, and national associations had until 2 February 2009 to register their interest. Indonesian officials had not ruled out a bid for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, until Qatar was awarded the 2022 tournament. During the bidding process, all non-UEFA nations gradually withdrew their 2018 bids, thus guaranteeing that a UEFA nation would host the 2018 tournament and thereby making UEFA nations ineligible for the 2022 bid. For players in the United States, a few weeks in a camp and a handful of matches, including four this month, could change everything.

During the same time , Steffen's xGOT is 7.22, with a GP figure of -0.78, which suggests that he has allowed more goals than should have been prevented. Four matches will be played each day during the group stage, which will run over a 12-day period and see winners and runners-up progress to the round of 16. Russia's participation was further thrown into doubt after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.