2022 World Cup: 204 countries still in contention for 31 available places, Qatar qualified as host

204 countries can still hope to join Qatar, qualified as host country, to participate in the XXII World Cup, scheduled, as the summer heat requires, from 21/11 to 18/12/2022.

"The 2022 World Cup in Qatar will be played with 32 teams as originally planned, and no proposal (to expand to 48 teams) will be submitted to the FIFA Congress of 05/06/2019 in Paris (FRA)," announced FIFA on 22/05/2019.

Six of FIFA's 211 member federations have already been eliminated: Brunei, Laos, Pakistan, Bhutan, Timor-Leste and Macao were dropped in the first round of AFC qualifying, against, respectively, Mongolia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Guam, Malaysia and Sri Lanka, on 06 and 11/06/2019.

News Tank Football takes stock, confederation by confederation, on the format and timing of the qualifying phase for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

AFC Asian Football Confederation

• Number of federations affiliated to FIFA: 46
• Number of places for the final tournament: 4 or 5, + Qatar as host country
• Qualifying start for Qatar 2022: June 2019
• Format: three rounds, the second of which also qualifies for the AFC…