Hiram Moreno
We are less than two months away from the start of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, with 32 national teams traveling to the Asian country to compete for the biggest trophy in international soccer, with France being the reigning and defending champions.
However, how exactly did those 32 teams earn their ticket to participate in the tournament? The qualification process for the FIFA World Cup is quite extensive and varies depending on each continent, and here at JefeBet, we are going to dissect it little by little to show you the path of each country to reach the big party of international soccer.
2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar | 32 Quotas for Six Confederations
First of all, it is important to be clear about something. FIFA is the federation that governs soccer around the world, but each continent has a confederation that administers and organizes soccer both at the international level and at the club competition level in its respective region.
With this in mind, let’s take a look at the six soccer confederations on the planet and the region to which they belong:
- South America: South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL)
- Central America, North America and the Caribbean: Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF).
- Europe: Union of European Football Associations (UEFA)
- Africa: Confederation of African Football (CAF)
- Asia: Asian Football Confederation (AFC)
- Oceania: Oceania Football Confederation (OFC)
Now that this is clear, we can begin to break down how the World Cup quotas will be distributed. Each Football Confederation around the world is allocated a number of quotas for the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar, with this being defined on the basis of the level of each region. We also note that the host country has secured its participation in the World Cup, leaving only 31 places available.
The following is the distribution of the quotas for the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar among all the soccer confederations in the world.
| Confederation | Number of quotas |
| UEFA | 13 |
| CAF | 5 |
| AFC | 4.5 |
| CONMEBOL | 4.5 |
| CONCACAF | 3.5 |
| OFC | 0.5 |
Europe has the largest number of World Cup quotas, followed by the African region. The AFC, CONMEBOL, CONCACAF and OFC have “half-quotas” since member countries that have reached a certain position in the standings must play a playoff with a country from another confederation to determine to whom the ticket will go.
For this 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar, the AFC had to face CONMEBOL for the half-ticket, with Australia beating Peru 5-4 on penalties, while CONCACAF put its half-ticket on the line in a clash against the OFC, with Costa Rica beating New Zealand 1-0.
Are you interested in knowing how the ranking is by region? Here is a brief review of each of them.
Qualification for the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar: UEFA
55 teams were drawn into a total of ten groups, five of which contained five teams while the other five teams contained a total of 10 countries fighting for a ticket.
The countries that finished first in their respective groups qualified directly for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, while those that finished second in their groups had to play for a ticket through a playoff.
UEFA Qualifying Playoffs
That playoff contained not only the runners-up from all the groups in this UEFA qualification process but also two teams chosen from the UEFA Nations League 2020/21 ranking, with Austria and the Czech Republic (fourth and third in their group, respectively) being the beneficiaries of this.
In total, there were 12 teams for a total of 3 remaining quotas. These teams were divided into three separate groups containing four countries, which had to play each other in “semifinal” and “final” matches to determine the remaining tickets.
UEFA Countries Participating in the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar
After the long process, these were the European countries that ended up qualifying for the World Cup:
| First place in the group | Denmark, Belgium, France, Croatia, England, Germany, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Croatia, Switzerland, United Kingdom |
| Qualified through the playoff | Portugal, Poland, Wales |
Qualification for the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar: CAF
A total of 54 teams participated in the qualification process for the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 on the African continent, which has a rather extensive but not difficult to understand format.
CAF divides its World Cup qualifying process into three distinct phases, and here is a detailed description of how each phase is played.
First Round
The first CAF qualifying round had the participation of the 28 countries of the continent with the lowest FIFA ranking for the month of July 2019. These were paired in 14 direct elimination series in a round-robin format, and the winners of these series qualified for the second round.
Second Round
The second round consisted of 40 participants: the 14 from the first round plus the remaining 26 countries in the confederation, which began their route to the World Cup at this stage of the qualifying process.
The 40 teams were divided into a total of 10 groups, where the top teams in each group after six rounds had a ticket to the third and final round in this qualifying process.
Third Round
With only ten teams remaining, a similar format to the first round was played again, with the teams being split into pairs and playing round-robin series, with the winner of the series earning one of the five tickets to the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.
CAF Countries Participating in the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022
After the long qualifying process, these are the CAF countries that will participate in the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar:
- Ghana
- Senegal
- Tunisia
- Morocco
- Cameroon
Qualification for the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar: CONMEBOL
CONMEBOL’s World Cup qualifiers may be the easiest in the world in terms of format, but this in turn makes it one of the toughest in terms of the level of competition.
Only ten countries make up this confederation, and these ten will play against each other in a round-robin format for a total of 18 matches (one home, one away), and once all the matches are completed, the first four qualifiers will go directly to the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar, while the fifth qualifier will have to play a playoff against a team from the AFC.
CONMEBOL Countries Participating in the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022
Now that the process has been completed, the CONMEBOL countries that will participate in the World Cup are the following:
- Argentina
- Brazil
- Ecuador
- Uruguay
Qualification for the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar: AFC
The AFC also has a fairly extensive elimination process. After all, 46 teams belonging to the confederation were in contention, including Qatar who had already secured their ticket as hosts but participated in view of the 2023 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers.
The process involved four distinct phases, each of which is explained below.
First Round
Similar to Africa, the first round of the AFC qualifying process featured the 12 Asian teams with the lowest FIFA ranking in April 2019, which were split into pairs to play a total of six round-robin series, with the six winners earning a quota in the next round.
Second Round
The six teams arriving from the first round will be joined by the remaining 34 AFC nations, who began their participation in the qualifying process at this very point.
The 40 teams were divided into 8 groups of five countries each, which played a total of eight matches (one home, one away) against their group rivals, and at the end of this, the top teams in each group earned their pass to the third round, as did the four best runners-up in each group.
However, it is important to note that as Qatar finished top of Group E, their place in the third round was taken by Oman, second in the same group. In addition, South Korea’s withdrawal from the competition meant that Group H had one less participant, which led the AFC to decide not to take into account points won or lost against the bottom teams in each group when calculating the points to select the second-best team in each group.
Third Round
With 12 teams remaining, all teams were once again divided into groups, this time of six participants, and after ten matches, the first and second place finishers from each group would earn a ticket to the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar.
On the other hand, the countries that finish third in their respective groups will reach a fourth and final round in this AFC qualifying process.
Fourth Round
The third-placed team from Group A and Group B in the third round would face each other in a single match at a neutral venue to determine the remaining half ticket to the World Cup.
Once the winner was known, it had to face the fifth-placed team in the CONMEBOL qualifying round to determine which confederation would win a place in the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar.
AFC Countries Participating in the 2022 Fifa World Cup Qatar 2022
After the long and exhausting process, the Asian teams that will participate in the next World Cup in Qatar will be the following:
| Directly classified | Qatar, Iran, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia |
| Qualified through the playoff | Australia |
Qualification for the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar: CONCACAF
CONCACAF’s qualifying process for the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar was just as extensive as that of many other confederations, and we will now take a round-by-round look at the path followed by all 35 teams in the run-up to the global showpiece.
First Round
In total, there are 41 countries affiliated to CONCACAF, of which 35 participated in the qualifying process, with the first round having the absences of Mexico, the United States, Costa Rica, Jamaica and Honduras, who will participate directly in the third round because they were the highest ranked countries in the region according to the July 2020 FIFA ranking.
This leaves the first round with only 30 participants, who were grouped into six different groups of five teams, with the top team from each group advancing to the second round.
Second Round
In the second round, the top six finishers from each group were drawn to face each other in three separate home-and-away series, with the winner of each series advancing to the third and final CONCACAF qualifying round for the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar.
Third Round
The third round would be played in a round-robin format, with each team playing one home and one away game against the other members of this phase, which was reached by the three teams that advanced from the second round as well as the five best-qualified teams in the region.
After 14 matches, the top three finishers would be assured of a place in the next World Cup, while the fourth-placed country would have to play a playoff against an OFC team.
CONCACAF Countries Participating in the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022
After the qualifying process, the CONCACAF countries that managed to seal a ticket to Qatar for the end of 2022 were the following:
| Directly classified | Canada, Mexico, United States |
| Qualified through the playoff | Costa Rica |
2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar qualification: OFC
Finally, we have the OFC playoff, which is by far the weakest conference in the world, and it is not for nothing that only half a ticket is given to it.
A total of only nine countries contested the qualifiers for the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar due to the withdrawal of Samoa and American Samoa. Three different rounds were played, which are described below.
First Round
The first round pitted the two lowest-ranked OFC countries, Tonga and the Cook Islands, although the latter would advance to the second round after the former withdrew due to the eruption of the Hunga Tonga volcano in its home country.
Second Round
With only eight teams still alive, they were separated into two different groups, with two of the top teams from each group advancing to the next round.
Group A saw Tahiti and the Solomon Islands advance directly after the withdrawal of the Cook Islands and Vanuatu, while Papua New Guinea and New Zealand qualified from Group B for the third round.
Third Round
The third round would separate the remaining four teams to face each other in a single-leg semi-final, with the winner advancing to a single-leg final where the victorious country would earn the right to fight for a quota in the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar in a continental playoff against the fourth-place finisher from the CONCACAF playoff.
OFC Countries Participating in the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022
After the playoff, the OFC was left without a representative in Qatar after New Zealand lost 1-0 to Costa Rica.
