Los World Cup 2022 in Qatar: What is the death threat? And how are the teams seeded in the baskets?

Some of the World Cup barrier matches have been played, some are still to be played. Even so, we already know 99% how the teams will be seeded in the baskets for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. That will take place on Friday at 6pm.

At the moment, 27 of the 32 participants for the World Cup in Qatar are known. The other two will be announced on Wednesday night to Thursday, when the North and Central American qualifiers will be played. The biggest favourites to qualify directly are the USA and Mexico with 25 points, but Costa Rica with 22 points can also qualify directly.

The remaining three places will be contested in the barrages by the following teams:

Ukraine/Scotland – Wales – June ?
United Arab Emirates/Australia – Peru – June 13 or 14
Solomon Islands/New Zealand – Costa Rica/USA/Mexico – June 13 or 14

But it won’t change the standings in the individual baskets, so we can get on with the draw to determine the core groups. And at first glance, an interesting group of death looms. Germany are only in the second basket, if they get a giant from the first basket and for example Poland, Serbia or Senegal from the third basket, it could be very interesting.

In the first basket, Qatar, which is hosting the championship, is in A1 position. It is thus automatically assigned to Group A and will open the World Cup with the opening match.

The other seven places in the first basket are occupied by the highest ranked national teams in the FIFA rankings. Next, the teams are equally divided into the second and third baskets, with the fourth basket assigned to the winners of the continental play-offs and the winner of the remaining UEFA play-offs.

Format and calendar of the 2022 World Cup

In Qatar, the plan is for a classic championship format with 32 teams and eight core groups of four teams each. These will play three matches in a one-on-one format, with the top two from each group advancing to the eighth-finals.

There the teams will play each other as follows: The winner of Group A will play the second team from Group B, the second team from Group A will challenge the winner of Group B, and so on with Groups C vs. D, E vs. F and G vs. H.

21 November – 2 December 2022

Eight Finals:: 3-6 December

Quarter-finals:: 9 and 10 December

Semi-finals:: 13 and 14 December

Third place:: 17 December

Finals:: 18 December

Source: FIFA