The footballing world is turning its eyes to Doha today, Friday at 6pm Central European Time. Because that’s when the draw for the group stage of the soccer World Cup in Qatar takes place. There are four pots in total. The classification is based on the world rankings. However, there is an exception for Qatar. The host is also in pot one. This also makes you a popular opponent for other nations. Because otherwise threaten from pot one with Brazil, Belgium, defending champions France, Argentina, England, Spain or Portugal.
In pot two there are also highly interesting nations with Germany, Vice World Champion Croatia, the Netherlands, Denmark, Uruguay, Switzerland, the USA and Mexico. In pot three, Poland lurks with Bayern’s top scorer Robert Lewandowski. Serbia will definitely not be underestimated either, especially since they beat Portugal in the World Cup qualifiers. In addition, Senegal, Iran, Japan, Morocco, South Korea and Tunisia are in the third pot.
The weakest nations are represented in pot four: Cameroon, Canada, Ecuador, Saudi Arabia and Ghana. A maximum of two European representatives are allowed per group. Each other continental federation may field only one national team per pool. Former football stars such as Cafu, Lothar Matthäus and Jay-Jay Okocha will also draw the balls in the draw. Also present are Adel Ahmed Malallah from Qatar, Ali Daei (Iran), Bora Milutinovic (Serbia/Mexico), Rabah Madjer (Algeria) and Tim Cahill from Australia.
The finals will take place from November 21st to December 18th. The final will take place at the Lusail Stadium in Doha. In this arena includes 90,000 seats. The finale takes place on Qatar’s national holiday, while the fourth Advent is celebrated in this country. At 28 days, it will also be the shortest World Cup since 1978. Due to the extreme heat in summer, the decision was made to hold the World Cup in winter. In addition, due to the brevity, there will also be four kick-off times (11 a.m., 2 p.m., 5 p.m. and 8 p.m.). In the knockout phase, no game takes place before 4 p.m. 32 teams are divided into eight groups of four teams each. The top two teams in each group qualify for the round of 16.
For the time being, a World Cup with 32 participants will take place for the last time. Because in 2026 (Canada, USA, Mexico) 48 nations are taking part. This also increases the chances for Austria enormously, especially since 16 instead of 13 teams from Europe are taking part.
