Qatar 2022

WCQ Inter-continental play-off for Qatar 2020:

Concacaf's President Victor Montagliani affirmed yesterday that the inter-continental play-off of the Concacaf area will face the winner of Oceania. Which implies that the other playoff will be between Conmebol and the AFC. "The hand of God" decided it without any draw.
http://www.insideworldfootball.com/...ague-will-finish-2022-qualifiers-need-re-jig/

 

Considering the circumstances, not having a draw for the playoff is not the biggest deal in the world in my opinion.


I guess Asia could complain and say they rather have faced New Zealand (More than likely) than a South American team but hey. You got to host a corrupt World Cup in Asia so cry me a river.
It evens out in my mind.

 

I tend to agree although if CONCACAF has drawn CONMEBOL it would have exposed the flaws in the new CONCACAF qualifying format better. 90% of the WC qualifying games in CONCACAF would have been rendered meaningless.

 

North America verse South America. Asia verse... likely New Zealand ... makes more geographic sense, but.. whatever. Going from 2 games home and home to 1 game in a neutral site probably makes more sense given the current circumstances of the world. Shame it has to be in Qatar...

 

I hate to be "that conspiracy guy" but FIFA cannot afford to have the USA miss again.

CONCACAF having to face Chile. Peru, Colombia etc. would be too ri$ky.

 

I may have to brush up on the latest football news, but I thought it was impossible for the US to be involved in the playoff. Top 3 of the HEX qualify, the other 3 are eliminated, no? The playoff is for the winner of the "B" tournament...

 

Hex 4th place plays the B Tournament winner.

 

Ah yes, the format is dumber than I thought....

 

It is only a one cycle thing.

Due to expansion they will change things up.

 

They may change things up. They could still use the same batshit formula in 2026, except only the top 2 from the HEX qualify directly with #3 playing the B tourney winner.

 

for 2026 I could see them going back to the old format. Since USA will already automatically qualify they will give all the nations a decent shot of qualifying. Instead of relying so much on ranking like this 2022 format.

ps. I love this 2022 format because now Jamaica is gonna go straight to the Hex

 

I assume not just USA, but also Mexico and Canada qualify automatically.

But, yeah... agree that they should revert to the old format for that.

 

yup all 3 are going to automatically qualify. I mentioned USA because it’s apparent for 2022 they revised the format to ensure USA qualifies this time around. Too much money was lost without them being in it

 

I'm not sure how the revised format guarantees that. I think its likely they will qualify on their merits, but the hex format is the same as last time (just qualifying for the hex is different) and that's where the USA failed last time.

 

The hex format is the same but the way they have made the qualifying for the hex via FIFA rankings is such a load of BS... would the likes of Jamaica, Trinidad, or Panama have even qualified for their previous world cups with this system in place? I really, really hate it....

 

Well I dont know if they were thinking along these lines, but with the new format, the hex will be easier, with the likes of El Salvador to be in while superior teams like Canada, Haiti, Panama, even Curacao, will be excluded, which makes US path to qualify easier and less likely to have upsets.

 

The funny thing is before the failure last time I had always feared more for the US in the semi-final round than in the Hex round. The Hex has more time to make up for mistakes, whereas the semi final round, with only 6 games, offered less. Although the competition isn't as good in the semi-final round, I always thought a 0-0 at home and a loss down in Central America and the Caribbean and suddenly you are in trouble, with only 3 games to go. Plus, in the Hex more than half of the teams don't get eliminated where as in the semi final round half do.

So yes, you are correct. But I think that they did a favor to the USA by eliminating the semi-final round.

 

Good point. And if you draw a cream puff in the semifinal round that every can beat, then it essentially comes down to just 4 games.

 

It's funny how the thing that may honestly save FIFA is the fact that the 2022 tourney will take place in the winter which at least gives a bit more time in between the now Euro 2021 schedule and qualifying for 2022. I'll be the first to admit I threw up a little bit when I saw that Qatar had been awarded the tournament but now I think it kind of worked out for the better. As long as there is no bullshit to get them deep into the tournament like in 2002 with the Koreans we should be okay.

 

Nice post. Should just let 2002 go.

 

I was thinking about that the other day but there's always two sides to a coin

It could be WORSE to have it in the winter and have thousands of travelers go to big stadiums. The Winter time is when experts think the spread could make a resurgence similar to Cold and Flu season every year.

Nobody is going to want to go to Qatar.
No fans, no players, no team officials, no dignitaries.

It would be too much of a Risk.

We should just have the World Cup in England during the Summer of 2023 or something like that.

 

You realize Qatar “winter” is like 85 degrees F right?

The World Cup 2022 in Qatar is happening. Whether you like it or not.

 

It gets much colder than that, maybe even into the 50s Fahrenheit at night. However, still nothing like Europe or other places.

 

Average December max/min in Doha is 24/15 C or 75/59 F. Relative humidity averages 71% in December. This is pretty similar to December temperatures where I live (Doha is a couple of degrees cooler). Of course we are starting summer then, and they are starting winter. It's not hot weather that kills viruses, its the fact that in hot weather we practice a degree of social distancing anyway that limits the spread. In winter we spend more time huddled together and in closed in spaces where viruses can more easily spread..