2022 FIFA World Cup

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"2022 World Cup" redirects here. For other competitions of that name, see 2022 World Cup
(disambiguation).

"FIFA 2022" redirects here. For the video game, see FIFA 22.

2022 FIFA World Cup

2022 ‫كأس العالم لكرة القدم‬

‫عالوعد‬
"Now Is All"[1]

Tournament details

Host country Qatar

Dates 20 November – 18 December

Teams 32 (from 5 confederations)

Venue(s) 8 (in 5 host cities)

Final positions

Champions Argentina (3rd title)

Runners-up France

Third place Croatia

Fourth place Morocco

Tournament statistics

Matches played 64

Goals scored 172 (2.69 per match)

Attendance 3,404,252 (53,191 per match)

Top scorer(s) Kylian Mbappé (8 goals)

Best player(s) Lionel Messi

Best young player Enzo Fernández

Best goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez

Fair play award England

← 2018

2026 →

Part of a series on the

2022 FIFA World Cup

Hosting

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Qualification

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The 2022 FIFA World Cup was the 22nd FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world
championship for national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Qatar from
20 November to 18 December 2022, after the country was awarded the hosting rights in
2010.[2] It was the first World Cup to be held in the Middle East and Persian Gulf
countries, and the second in an Asian country after the 2002 tournament in South
Korea and Japan.[A]

This tournament was the last with 32 participating teams, with the number of teams
being increased to 48 for the 2026 World Cup. To avoid the extremes of Qatar's hot and
humid climate in summers,[3] the event was held in November and December, becoming
the first one to take place outside the traditional months of May, June, and July. [3][4] It was
held over a reduced time frame of 29 days with 64 matches played in eight
venues across five cities. Qatar entered the event—their first World Cup—automatically
as the host's national team, alongside 31 teams determined by the qualification process.

Morocco made history by becoming the first African nation to reach the semi-final of a
World Cup, falling short 0-2 against France.[5] Argentina were crowned the champions
after winning the final against the title holder France 4–2 on penalties following a 3–3
draw after extra time. It was Argentina's third title and their first since 1986, as well as
being the first nation from outside of Europe to win the tournament since 2002. French
player Kylian Mbappé became the first player to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final
since Geoff Hurst in the 1966 final and won the Golden Boot as he scored the most
goals (eight) during the tournament. Mbappé also became the first player to score in two
consecutive finals since Vavá of Brazil did the same in 1958 and 1962.

Argentine captain Lionel Messi was voted the tournament's best player, winning his
second Golden Ball. The tournament has been considered exceptionally poetic as
the capstone of his career, with the win fulfilling for some commentators a previously
unmet criterion to be regarded as the greatest player of all time.[6] Teammates Emiliano
Martínez and Enzo Fernández won the Golden Glove, awarded to the tournament's
best goalkeeper; and the Young Player Award, awarded to the tournament's best young
player, respectively. With 172 goals, the tournament set a record for the highest number
of goals scored in the 32-team format, with every participating team scoring at least one
goal.
The choice to host the World Cup in Qatar attracted significant criticism, with concerns
raised over the country's treatment of migrant workers, women, and members of the
LGBTQ+ community, as well as Qatar's climate, lack of a strong football culture,
scheduling changes, and allegations of bribery for hosting rights and wider FIFA
corruption.[B]

Format
The FIFA World Cup is a professional football tournament held between national
football teams, organised by FIFA.[15][16] The tournament, held every four years, was first
played in 1930 in Uruguay,[17] and has been contested by 32 teams since the 1998
event.[17] The tournament was contested with eight round-robin groups followed by
a knockout round for 16 teams.[18] The defending champions were France, who
defeated Croatia 4–2 in the 2018 FIFA World Cup Final.[19][20] The event was scheduled
to take place under a reduced length,[21] from 20 November to 18 December in Qatar.[22][23]
[24]
Being held in Qatar, it was the first World Cup tournament to be held in the Arab
world.[25] Spectators were not required to follow most COVID-19 restrictions such as
social distancing, wearing masks, and negative tests.[26]

Schedule
Unlike previous FIFA World Cups, which are typically played in June and July, because
of Qatar's intense summer heat and often fairly high humidity,[3][23][27] the 2022 World Cup
was played in November and December.[7][28] As a result, the World Cup was unusually
staged in the middle of the seasons of many domestic association football leagues,
which started in late July or August, including all of the major European leagues, which
had been obliged to incorporate extended breaks into their domestic schedules to
accommodate the World Cup. Major European competitions had scheduled their
respective competitions group matches to be played before the World Cup, to avoid
playing group matches the following year.[29]

The match schedule was confirmed by FIFA on 15 July 2020.[30] The group stage was
set to begin on 21 November, with four matches every day. Later, the schedule was
tweaked by moving the Qatar vs Ecuador game to 20 November, after Qatar lobbied
FIFA to allow their team to open the tournament.[31][32][33] The final was played on 18
December 2022, National Day, at Lusail Stadium.[30][34] Unlike previous tournaments
where the match venues and kick-off times for each fixture were set prior to the draw,
the assignment of group fixtures for each matchday to a specific venue and kick-off time
was only made after the final draw, with the teams of each specific fixture known. This
was due to the close proximity of the venues, which allowed the organizers to optimize
stadium allocation for spectators and kick-off times for television audiences.[30]

The matches for each group were allocated to the following stadiums:[34]

 Groups A, B, E, F: Al Bayt Stadium, Khalifa International Stadium, Al Thumama

Stadium, Ahmad bin Ali Stadium
 Groups C, D, G, H: Lusail Stadium, Stadium 974, Education City Stadium, Al Janoub
Stadium
FIFA confirmed the group stage venue and kick-off times on 1 April 2022, following the
draw.[35][36]

Prize money
In April 2022, FIFA announced the prizes for all participating nations. Each qualified
team received $1.5 million before the competition to cover preparation costs with each
team receiving at least $9 million in prize money. This edition's total prize pool was
$440 million, $40 million greater than the prize pool of the previous tournament.[37]

Amount (in millions)

Place Teams
Per team Total

Champions 1 $42 $42

Runners-up 1 $30 $30

Third place 1 $27 $27

Fourth place 1 $25 $25

5th–8th place (quarter-finals) 4 $17 $68

9th–16th place (round of 16) 8 $13 $104

17th–32nd place (group stage) 16 $9 $144

Total 32 $440

Rule changes
The tournament featured new substitution rules whereby teams could make up to five
substitutions in normal time, and an additional substitution in extra time.[38][39][40] In
addition, it was the first World Cup to feature concussion substitutions, whereby each
team was permitted to use a maximum of one concussion substitute during a match. A
concussion substitution did not count towards a team's quota of regular substitutions.
[41]
Iranian goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand suffered a concussion in his country's opening
match against England and was replaced by Hossein Hosseini. This was the first use of
a dedicated concussion substitute during a World Cup.[42]

Host selection
Main articles: 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup bids and Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup bid
 Russian President Vladimir Putin handing over the
symbolic relay baton for the hosting rights of the 2022 FIFA World Cup to Qatar's Emir Tamim
bin Hamad Al Thani in June 2018.

The bidding procedure to host the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups began in January
2009. National associations had until 2 February 2009 to register interest.[43] Initially, 11
bids were made for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, but Mexico withdrew from proceedings,[44]
[45]
and Indonesia's bid was rejected by FIFA in February 2010 after the Indonesian
Football Association failed to submit a letter of Indonesian government guarantee to
support the bid.[46]

After UEFA were guaranteed to host the 2018 event, members of UEFA were no longer
in contention to host in 2022.[47] There were five bids remaining for the 2022 FIFA World
Cup: Australia, Japan, Qatar, South Korea, and the United States. The 22-
member FIFA Executive Committee convened in Zürich, Switzerland, on 2 December
2010 to vote to select the hosts of both tournaments.[48] Two FIFA executive committee
members were suspended before the vote in relation to allegations of corruption
regarding their votes.[49] The decision to host the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, which was
graded as having "high operational risk",[50] generated criticism from media
commentators.[51] It was criticised by many as being part of the FIFA corruption
scandals,[52] which led to the 2015 FIFA corruption case.

The voting patterns were as follows:[53]

2022 FIFA bidding (majority 12 votes)

Votes

Bidders
Round Round
Round 2 Round 4
1 3

Qatar 11 10 11 14

United States 3 5 6 8
 2022 FIFA bidding (majority 12 votes)

Votes

Bidders
Round Round
Round 2 Round 4
1 3

South Korea 4 5 5 Eliminated

Japan 3 2 Eliminated

Australia 1 Eliminated

Cost of hosting the tournament

At an estimated cost of over $220 billion,[54] it is the most expensive World Cup ever held
to date; this figure is disputed by Qatari officials, including organising CEO Nasser Al
Khater, who said the true cost was $8 billion, and other figures related to overall
infrastructure development since the World Cup was awarded to Qatar in 2010. [55]