32 teams have reached Qatar for the Football World Cup (FIFA World Cup 2022) starting from 20 November. Football fans around the world will keep cheering for their champion team for 29 days from 20th November to 18th December.
But before the madness begins, let’s take a look at some of the interesting facts about the FIFA that can keep you interested throughout this World Cup:
1. This is the first time that an Arab country have been given the opportunity to organize the Football World Cup. In 2002, for the first time since the first World Cup was held in Uruguay (the America) in 1930, the tournament traveled to Asia (the Korea and Japan). For the second time in 2022, for the 22nd FIFA World Cup, it is being hosted by an Asian country.
2. This will be the last time when 32 teams of the world will participate in the World Cup. Because the World Cup is to be held in America, Mexico and Canada in 2026, the number of teams will increase from 32 to 48. Did you know that only 13 teams participated in the 1930 World Cup played in Uruguay. In the finals of the first World Cup, the host Uruguay won its first title by defeating Argentina by 4-2.
3. This time 5 Asian teams are part of the big tournament. Qatar has got a place in Group-A, Iran in Group-B, Saudi Arabia in Group-C, Japan in Group-E and Korea in Group-H. Iran first participated as an Asian team in 1978. After this, Iran also participated in the FIFA World Cup in 2002, 2006 and 2010.
China made it all the way to the group stage in the 2002 World Cup. Till now 13 teams including Australia from Australasia Group have participated in the World Cup. In the 2002 World Cup, the Korean team was at number four, which has been the best performance of any Asian country so far.
4. India also got a chance to play the 1950 World Cup once. But India could not participate in this World Cup. Many reasons have led up to this big decision, from financial constraints to stubbornness to play barefoot to India being ban by FIFA, a lot needs to solve between Team India before they get to play in the World Cup. Moreover, India’s current world ranking is 106 and it is a distant dream for India to be included in the top 48 teams.
5. Brazil, which is a five-time champion and has been in the top 3 teams for 9 times out of 21, and is being seen by many experts around the world as champions this time too. Brazil also has the most dominance in speculative markets like William Hill and Ladbroke. This time in the betting market, apart from Brazil, Argentina, France, England and Spain are also considered strong contenders for the title.
6. This could possibly be the last World Cup for not only Lionel Messi of Argentina (age 35 years, 165 matches, 91 goals), Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal (age 37 years, 191 matches, 117 goals), Neymar of Brazil (age 30 years, 121 matches, 75 goals) but also Luis of Uruguay Suarez (age 35 years, 134 matches, 68 goals), Edinson Cavani (age 35 years, 133 matches, 58 goals), Luka Mordic of Croatia (age 37 years, 155 matches, 23 goals), Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer (age 36 years, 114 matches) and Portugal’s midfielder Pepe (age 39 years, 128 matches, 7 goals).
7. More than 200 countries play football in the world. But till now only 8 teams and 6 times the host teams have won the World Cup title. Brazil has won the title maximum 5 times, Germany and Italy 4-4 times, Argentina, France and Uruguay 2-2 times, while England and Spain have won this title 1-1 times.
8. The top 10 teams in the world according to the FIFA rankings are: Brazil, Belgium, Argentina, France, England, Italy, Spain, Holland, Portugal and Denmark.