The international qualifiers are a crucial part of the football calendar, providing a gateway for national teams to compete in the prestigious FIFA World Cup tournament. The format of these tournaments has changed over time, but the basic principles remain unchanged – national teams are divided into zones that correspond to continents, and the top two countries from each zone qualify automatically for the finals. The remaining places are contested in intercontinental play-offs.
The 2022 qualifiers are in full swing across the globe, with traditional powerhouses like Brazil and Argentina facing intense competition from up-and-coming teams like Ecuador and Colombia. Fans have witnessed some surprising results thus far, with emerging nations like Greece and Switzerland knocking out their higher-ranked rivals.
For Europe, the group stage kicked off on March 21 with qualifying campaigns set to run until November of next year. Teams were split into groups of four or five and played home-and-away matches in a round-robin format with “all play all” rules maintained. The 12 group winners qualify directly for the World Cup, while the remaining berths are decided by play-offs involving the highest-ranked runners-up from each of the three four-team groups.
Oceania’s qualifying process is more straightforward — the winner of each group earns one of the six automatic spots available in the finals. DR Congo, South Africa and Cape Verde currently lead their respective groups and are joined by Mohamed Salah’s Egypt and 2010 dark horses Ghana in the running for top spot. Australia, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia are also poised to make it through to Round 4, which will see the top two in each group advance to a semifinal against a team from each confederation (including hosts Qatar).