We don't know the format yet, nor what stage the USA will enter after the recent unlpleasantness. But yeah, probably sometime next fall.
Last cycle the qualifying format was announced in September 2014, Concacaf did the Round 1 draw in January 2015, started WCQs in February 2015, and USA started WCQs in November 2015. Since World Cup 2022 is about six month later in the year, the equivalent months would be March 2019, July 2019, August 2019, and May 2020. I'm not saying it will happen those months, and there are never WCQs in May. https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/...-cuptm-confederation-slots-maintained-2610611 is FIFA's announcement on May 30, 2015 of how many spots each confederation got. I don't remember the timing, but I think it would make sense for the amount of spots to be announced before qualifying starts. In September 2014, Concacaf assumed they would have 3.5 spots.
Should be a year from now, but FIFA hasn't decided yet on how many teams will qualify for '22. So format isn't even setup yet.
my guess is Spring 2020 instead of Fall 2019 as usual depending on format. I know they want lesser/smaller teams to play MORE games so we'll see. Instead of those CONCACAF 'minnows' play a home & away leg and be done perhaps they will make groups.
Not yet. The qualifying draw is in July, so I assume we'll get a look at the official format and dates before that. I assume that they'll use the same 12 team semifinal and 6 team hexagonal format that they've used for the past several cycles. The larger question is how CONCACAF will choose to run the preliminary rounds, as that's something they've tweaked with every cycle. The final draw for Qatar is in April of 2022, which means qualifying should end in March of 2022, which means the hex should end in November of 2021. The hex will probably encompass all of 2021, which means the semi final round should start next year in 2020. There's 8 FIFA windows between The qualifying draw in July and the start of The 2021 calendar year. 3 of those windows will be needed for the semifinal round. How they choose to spread those around, and how much room they have to spread those around will depend on the length of the preliminary rounds. So in conclusion, I'd guess either June or September of next year. That guess is based on a tower of assumptions though.
I'm guessing all the Confederations have a Plan A and Plan B based upon a 32 or 48 team world cup. I think the AFC's current format would work either way. If they get 8 bids, they can just send the top 4 in each of their dual-hex groups instead of the top 2. CONCACAF is the trickiest one. In order to get from 35 down to 3.5 without having a bunch of two-legged elimination ties...it takes a lot of match days, just no way around that.
For CONCACAF no. The Nations League is already scheduled to go on for the rest of 2019, so there's no way it can. The lower ranked teams will be able to start in March 2020. Due to what will be an April 2022 draw and March 2022 inter-confederational playoff, that means the Hex would have to be played over the full course of 2021 with double matchdays in all 5 international windows (with the Gold Cup jammed in July). From March 2020 to November 2020 ,they'd have to find a way to get the field down from 35 to 6. So the options will be A) ditch the traditional 'Hex' and create a new format from the ground up or B) use a bunch of two-legged knockouts to get us down to the Fourth Round 12 (where the top teams have entered the last few cycles).
When do you think we will hear an announcement? So I guess the games USA will play this year besides the Gold Cup is the friendly tomorrow and then a few after the Gold Cup.
I'm guessing we hear whether the tournament will be 32 or 48 teams....that seems to be the unsettled matter that's keeping the WCQ process from being set up. Considering how long they've been waffling on this, I believe 48 is their strong preference and will find a way to do it by hook or by crook. They're running out of time and windows to allow all the confederations to get the field all the way down to 32. The field can be reduced to 48 in fewer matches (obviously). I'd think this has to be settled by sometime this spring, with the qualifying formats to follow before a preliminary draw in July. Current USMNT schedule will be tomorrow friendly, a couple June friendlies (perhaps European teams who are in the 5 team groups and have an open match day), Gold Cup in July, and then four Nations League matches spread between Sept, Oct and Nov with two at home and two on the road.
League C Teams have two open dates in the fall I believe. Theoretically I guess you could force them to play a home and away and eliminate six teams off the bat and down to 29. But you then have March and June 2020 windows to punt out 17 additional teams , so uh...LON doubles as qualifiers?
With the announcement of only 32 teams for Qutar, the qualifying schedule should be coming out soon, correct?
Fifa Congress on June 5th should be the date for the federations to setup their qualification schedule. I believe.