2022 World Cup qualifiers thread

Looks extremely likely that it will be NZ v Costa Rica (if NZ as expected beat Solomon Islands).

One thing I didn’t realise is that the draw is only five days away.

We have 20 qualified teams: Qatar, Germany, Denmark, Brazil, France, Belgium, Croatia, Spain, Serbia, England, Switzerland, Netherlands, Argentina, Iran, South Korea, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Ecuador, Uruguay & Canada.

You can add the USA and Mexico in a few days for twenty two. Portugal should make it 23 unless there is North Macedonia drama part 2. Team 24 will be Poland or Sweden. 

Manic_mania said:

Callumcafc said:

One thing I didn’t realise is that the draw is only five days away.

We have 20 qualified teams: Qatar, Germany, Denmark, Brazil, France, Belgium, Croatia, Spain, Serbia, England, Switzerland, Netherlands, Argentina, Iran, South Korea, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Ecuador, Uruguay & Canada.

You can add the USA and Mexico in a few days for twenty two. Portugal should make it 23 unless there is North Macedonia drama part 2. Team 24 will be Poland or Sweden. 

Plus the five African nations makes 29. The favourites are Nigeria, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt.


The final three places will be decided by play off in June so we will have a few “OR”s appearing in the draw like the FA Cup. :-)

- Wales OR Scotland OR Ukraine
- Costa Rica OR New Zealand OR Solomon Islands
- Peru OR Colombia OR Chile OR Australia OR UAE OR Iraq

Don't they usually do the draw with the name of the team on a piece of paper?? lol that's gonna be a long bit of paper 

Haha yes but by the time the draw rolls around on Friday, those six names will be cut down to three (one CONMEBOL and two AFC) so you’re going to see something like

Peru OR Australia OR Iraq

as an example.

Six names on a piece of paper would be fun no doubt. :-)

ForeverAddickted said:

Notice from Wiki that the draw will be determined by the FIFA World Rankings at the end of March... Thankfully we're 5th at the moment, with Italy not qualifying I cant see how we wont be one of the top seed.

Qatar | Belgium | Brazil | France | Argentina | England | Spain | Portugal OR Denmark

This is all then guess work, but based on the last World Cup the next Pot should be:

P2: Portugal OR Denmark | Netherlands | Germany | Mexico | United States | Switzerland | Croatia

Wales | Scotland | Ukraine, along with the two InterContinental Play-Off winners will go into Pot Four

Let's assume all the highest ranked teams left to qualify do so... this would be the pots based on current world rankings from https://football-ranking.com/fifa_rankings

Pot 1: Qatar, Brazil, Belgium, France, Argentina, England, Spain, Portugal

Pot 2: Netherlands, Mexico, USA, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Uruguay, Croatia

Pot 3: Sweden, Senegal, Japan, Iran, Serbia, Morocco, South Korea, Nigeria

Pot 4: Tunisia, Canada, Algeria, Ecuador, Saudi Arabia, PO1 (Colombia), PO2 (Wales), PO3 (Costa Rica)

Bolded are the teams who haven't officially qualified yet so teams ranked below them can still move up into better pots if we see some shock results.

ForeverAddickted said:

Callumcafc said:

ForeverAddickted said:

Notice from Wiki that the draw will be determined by the FIFA World Rankings at the end of March... Thankfully we're 5th at the moment, with Italy not qualifying I cant see how we wont be one of the top seed.

Qatar | Belgium | Brazil | France | Argentina | England | Spain | Portugal OR Denmark

This is all then guess work, but based on the last World Cup the next Pot should be:

P2: Portugal OR Denmark | Netherlands | Germany | Mexico | United States | Switzerland | Croatia

Wales | Scotland | Ukraine, along with the two InterContinental Play-Off winners will go into Pot Four

Let's assume all the highest ranked teams left to qualify do so... this would be the pots based on current world rankings from https://football-ranking.com/fifa_rankings

Pot 1: Qatar, Brazil, Belgium, France, Argentina, England, Spain, Portugal

Pot 2: Netherlands, Mexico, USA, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Uruguay, Croatia

Pot 3: Sweden, Colombia, Wales, Senegal, Japan, Iran, Serbia, Morocco

Pot 4: South Korea, Nigeria, Tunisia, Canada, Costa Rica, Algeria, Ecuador, Saudi Arabia


Bolded are the teams who haven't officially qualified yet so teams ranked below them can still move up into better pots if we see some shock results.

Wales cant end up in Pot Three, neither would Colombia if they're the side going through the Play-Offs

Yeah sorry that was a mistake on my part. I had already made a couple of them that I had to fix! This is tricky business apparently.

The post has been updated now. :-)

why can’t wales be a pot 2/3 team if it’s based on current world rankings ? 

ForeverAddickted said:

Chris_from_Sidcup said:

Are there rules regarding the draw so that you can't get (for example) 4 Euro sides in one group?

England, Germany, Sweden, Wales for example i guess can't happen?

Yeah can only be two European teams per Group 

I presume it’s the same for South American teams? Which makes it difficult if they don’t get know the winner of the interncontinental playoff yet.

ForeverAddickted said:

ValleyGary said:

ForeverAddickted said:

Chris_from_Sidcup said:

Are there rules regarding the draw so that you can't get (for example) 4 Euro sides in one group?

England, Germany, Sweden, Wales for example i guess can't happen?

Yeah can only be two European teams per Group 

I presume it’s the same for South American teams? Which makes it difficult if they don’t get know the winner of the interncontinental playoff yet.

Nope just the European teams

Its because there are 14 (?) European teams so its mathematically impossible to avoid having a minimum of two per most Groups - The other continents have five spots at most, so its easier to keep them apart.

Guess that Inter-Continental winner will just be kept apart from Brazil | Argentina | Qatar

Sorry I meant you can’t have two teams from the same continent outside Europe in a group, which I thought might make the draw difficult if you don’t know the teams. But as you mention, it’s fairly simple.

I think the rule is no more than two from Europe, no more than one from any other continent and the international play-off winners are also kept apart from the teams from the continent they beat in the playoff final, as well as their own. There are also some individual countries which get kept apart, but that's usually only an issue in qualifiers. Russia and Ukraine were kept apart in the playoffs. I don't know if they would have been kept apart in the event that they both qualified, but that's not relevant now anyway.

If I've understood the rules right (which is a very big if), Colombia can't be in a group with an Asian team. 

Swindon_Addick said:

I think the rule is no more than two from Europe, no more than one from any other continent and the international play-off winners are also kept apart from the teams from the continent they beat in the playoff final, as well as their own. There are also some individual countries which get kept apart, but that's usually only an issue in qualifiers. Russia and Ukraine were kept apart in the playoffs. I don't know if they would have been kept apart in the event that they both qualified, but that's not relevant now anyway.

If I've understood the rules right (which is a very big if), Colombia can't be in a group with an Asian team. 

Yes, you can’t have teams from the same confederation drawn against each other. There is an exception for Europe who have 13 teams to fit into 8 groups - every group must have at least one European country and no more than two to ensure an even spread of UEFA participation.

Another consequence that comes out of this rule with yet to be played play-offs is for example, if we assume the intercontinental playoff is Australia v Colombia, Australia could not be drawn into a group with a South American side as their ‘ball’ in the draw will be tied to both the Asian and South American confederation. No Brazil or Argentina for the Aussies.

Similarly, if New Zealand made it past Costa Rica, they can’t end up in a group with Mexico or the US.

Wales/Scotland/Ukraine will be uneffected by this rule as they all play under the same confederation and will be subject to the same rules as every other UEFA participant.