The 21st edition of the World Cup will have a special feature that will make it different from the rest of the versions because it will be held towards the end of the year so that the intense heat waves that affect the organizing country do not harm athletes as much. However, the Qatar World Cup will begin on April 1 when the draw for the group stage of the tournament will begin on November 21 and end on December 18 with the grand final.
The Doha Convention and Exhibition Center (DECC) will be attended by some 2000 guests for the draw on Friday, April 1 from 13 (Argentina time). But first, there will be an unknown around the formation of the pots, which will be defined on March 31, when the latest update of the FIFA Ranking will be announced, which will serve to place the seven top series, beyond the host, Qatar.
It is precisely the organizing country that will be placed as usual in 1st place in Group A to be the protagonist of the opening match that will be held on November 21 at 13:00 (Argentina time) at Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor. Qatar is the only selection of the 15 qualified so far that already knows its fixture, but is waiting for its rivals in the area.
The other seven seeds will be known from the FIFA ranking that today has, in order of ranking, Belgium, Brazil, France, Argentina, England, Italy and Spain in the top seven places. The detail is that the Italian national team has not yet sealed its pass to the World Cup as it must emerge victorious in the key UEFA repechage that will start on Thursday, March 24: Italy will face Macedonia and Portugal against Turkey. The winners of these duels will play against each other to look for a ticket to Qatar.
The other countries that qualify for the World Cup are Germany, Denmark, Croatia, Serbia, Switzerland, Netherlands, Iran and South Korea.
With 15 confirmed places, the panorama of the other 17 vacant seats heading to Qatar will begin to be resolved in the next few days, although there will also be a great mystery that will be unveiled between 13 and 14 June (that is, after the draw) when the last two keys of playoffs between America, Oceania and Asia are held in the match only: the fifth place in Conmebol will clash with the winner of the cross between the two thirds of the Asian Football Confederation and the other match will be starred by the fourth in Concacaf with the best in Oceania.
In other words, the draw will have the peculiarity of having 30 confirmed countries and four candidates for the expectation for the two tickets that will be free until June.
The 32 teams will be divided into four pots with eight participants each. The FIFA ranking will determine the positioning of each of the countries in these ciboria. There cannot be two teams from the same federation in the same area, unless they come from UEFA, which will be able to repeat up to two teams per group, since it counts more than twice as many qualifiers as the rest of the regions.
UEFA will have 13 representatives, Africa 5, Conmebol 4 (and one repechage), Asia 4 (and one repechage), Concacaf 3 (and one repechage) and Oceania will have a repechage available. To these must be added the host country.
THE FIFA RANKING OF THE QUALIFIERS SO FAR
1- Belgium
2- Brazil
3- France
4- Argentina
5- England
7- Spain
8- Denmark
10- Netherlands
11- Germany
14- Switzerland
15- Croatia
21- Iran
25- Serbia
29- South Korea
52- Qatar*
*Will be seeded for being a host
Day: Friday, April 1st
Time: 13.00 (Argentina - Chile - Uruguay - Brazil - Paraguay)/12.00 (Bolivia - Venezuela - East Coast United States)/11.00 (Peru - Ecuador - Colombia)/10.00 (Mexico)
Venue: Doha Convention and Exhibition Centre, Qatar
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