The 22nd edition of the FIFA World Cup is currently taking place in Qatar from November 20 to December 18, 2022. This is the first World Cup to be held in the Arab world, and the second World Cup held entirely in Asia after the 2002 tournament in South Korea and Japan.
The choice to host the World Cup in Qatar has been subject of significant controversy. These include Qatar’s alleged poor treatment of migrant workers, poor human rights records, and alleged persecution of LGBT people, amongst others.
Qatar’s intense climate and lack of a strong football culture has also sparked reactions across the media and amongst football lovers, raising pessimism about the quality of football to be seen in this year’s Mundial.
Below are ten Facts about the 2022 FIFA World cup in Qatar;
1.The 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar has a record prize pool of $440Mln.
2.The FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar IS last World Cup to feature 32 teams. Starting from 2026, it was decided to increase the number of participants to 48 national teams.
3.The logo for the 2022 FIFA World Cup is a ribbon symbolising infinity and harmony, as well as the shape of sand dunes. The ribbon depicts traditional Arabic ornaments.
4.The most expensive player in World Cup 2022, according to the Internet portal Transfermarkt, is Kylian Mbappe. His market value is €160Mln.
5.Germany’s Youssoufa Moukoko, born on November 20, 2004, is the youngest player at the World Cup.
6.The Qatar national team will play in the final stage of the tournament for the first time in its history. The team automatically qualified for the 2022 World Cup as Qatar is the host country.
7.Only fans vaccinated against coronavirus are able to attend World Cup 2022 matches.
8.Before the 2022 World Cup, analysts began to use modern developments. A supercomputer has already been employed to assess the teams’ chances in the qualifying tournament. In addition, robots (Artificial Intelligence, AI) that predict the exact score of the match have been used. However, these are still predictions rather than certainties.
9.The most money paid for a ticket in the tournament is €48,802.
10.For the first time in history, matches will be judged by women referees: Stephanie Frappart (France), Yoshimi Yamashita (Japan), and Salima Mukansanga (Rwanda) will scrutinise play.
The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men’s national teams of the members of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport’s global governing body.
The championship has been awarded every four years since the inaugural tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946 when it was not held because of the Second World War. The current champions are France, who won their second title at the 2018 tournament in Russia.
The qualification phase of the present structure determines which teams advance to the tournament phase, and it occurs over the previous three years. 32 teams play for the championship during the tournament phase over the course of around a month at locations in the host nation(s). The host country(ies) are ineligible by default.
Twenty-one championship matches, with 79 national teams, have been played since the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Eight national teams have claimed the prize as their own. Brazil is the only team to have competed in every event and has won five times.