Soccer
What we know about the World Cup playoffs 2022
The 2022 Fifa World Cup group stages have concluded and some teams have secured their spot while others await their fate in the playoffs, starting in March.
The 2022 World Cup will take place in Qatar from November 21 until December 18 of next year, 2022. The playoffs will start on March 24 and will continue until March 29, 2022.
How do the playoffs work?
The playoffs are made up of 12 sides. The countries will be split into seeded and un-seeded, with six of each. The two best group winners from the 2020-21 Nations League and the 10 runners up from the qualification groups will be in the pot.
On Friday November 26, 2021, the 12 teams will be drawn into three playoff paths for one-off semi finals and one final, with the three winners qualifying for the tournament in Qatar.
Scotland are seeded for the playoffs after defeating Denmark and will play their semi final at home. Wales will also have the advantage of playing their semi final at home now that they have beaten Belgium.
During the draw, the six best runners up will be put into Pot 1 and drawn into six semi finals as the home team. The rest will be drawn from Pot 2.
The path to the playoffs will consist of three, each one providing a finalist. Semi finals 1 and 2 make up playoff path A. Semi finals 3 and 4 make up path B. And semi finals 5 and 6 make up path C. One more draw will be held for each path to determine which of the semi final winners will play at home in the final.
There will be 32 total participants, and we won’t know the full list until the playoffs in March of course, but several countries have already confirmed their spot in Qatar in 2022.
Hosts:
Qatar
Europe:
Belgium
Croatia
Denmark
England
France
Germany
Serbia
Spain
Switzerland
The Netherlands
South America:
Brazil
Argentina