Every four years, the FIFA World Cup captivates the attention of the entire world. Fans root for their home country If they qualify. If their home country doesn’t qualify, they pick a side to support and watch until the end.
Getting to the actual World Cup is an accomplishment in itself. Every country that’s part of FIFA has a chance to qualify leading up to the tournament.
The process takes a while, but organizers believe that they have the best of the best participating every four years in the ultimate tournament.
The FIFA World Cup qualifiers work as follows (UEFA):
- Group Stage: 10 groups of 5 or 6 teams, group winners qualify for the FIFA World Cup.
- Play-Off Stage: 12 teams (10-second place teams in the group stage + 2 best Nations league group winners) These 12 nations will be divided into 3 brackets. To qualify, a team needs to win 2 play-off matches (semi-final and final).
- Hosts are direct qualified and do not need to qualify
How Are Hosts Determined For The World Cup?
Before jumping into qualifications, it’s important to understand what takes place before that part of a World Cup begins. Picking the host for a World Cup happens years before it takes place. For example, the 2022 World Cup host was officially picked in 2009.
There’s a lot of work that needs finished before one of the biggest sporting events. That means giving each host city plenty of time to get everything squared away.
Each World Cup has a few different host bids that cut down with different rounds. As an example, for the 2022 World Cup host bidding, Qatar, the United States, South Korea, Japan, and Australia were all in the running. Australia was the first to be eliminated, followed by Japan and South Korea. It came down to Qatar in the United States, with Qatar winning 14 to 8.
Bribery and corruption have been part of the picking process for quite some time. That led to a lot of controversies, most notably in recent times with the 2022 World Cup.
Qatar won the opportunity to host the tournament despite not having a rich soccer history like every other previous host. It was later found that they bribed officials for consideration as a money-making move.
Qualifications For The FIFA World Cup
The qualification process for any FIFA World Cup is how fans find out which 31 countries will join the host. There are six confederations and 206 countries competing for those spots.
The allotment of slots for each confederation has stayed the same since 2006. It breaks down as follows:
- Host: 1
- UEFA: 13
- OFC: 0-1
- CONMEBOL: 4-5
- CONCACAF: 3-4
- CAF: 5
- AFC: 4-5
Each confederation has its qualification cup to see who would go onto the World Cup. It’s all determined based on table position once teams have faced each other.
Once it came down to the end, there is an inter-confederation playoff to determine the final two spots. Recently, they played at the actual spot of the World Cup. These matches carry huge implications, as they can make or break the four-year window for a country.
Breaking Into World Cup Groups
After all teams qualify, the next step is creating the eight groups for the World Cup. The 2022 FIFA World Cup is the last tournament to have 32 teams qualify. Starting in 2026, 48 teams will participate in the World Cup. This will make the grouping part a bit trickier, but officials have already discussed plans for that.
To kick off the official start of the FIFA World Cup, all 32 teams mix up to form eight groups. While it’s random to some degree, FIFA does a few things to keep it fair. For example, eight teams (plus the host country) receive seeds so that they aren’t put in the same group. These are usually the best of the best over the last year or two of international competition.
After that, the remaining teams are placed in different pots to spread the talent as much as possible. Rules include trying to limit each group to two European teams each, and no more than one from each other confederation.
Even with all these rules in place, there will always be a group or two that seem much tougher than the rest. These groups often receive the label “The Group of Death.”
How Does The Actual FIFA World Cup Play Out?
The 32 teams are broken up into eight different groups to play through what’s called the group stage. Each team plays the other three in a group, with points awarded based on wins, losses, and draws. The top two teams advance to the knockout stage, with goal difference and number of goals scored as the top two tiebreakers if the point total is even.
Once the tournament reaches the knockout stage, the top qualifier in one group plays the runner-up in another group. As an example, the winner of Group A plays the runner-up of Group B. This means that in the first round of the knockout stage, group winners never face each other.
Since the winner and runner-up go to opposite sides of the bracket, the only way two teams from the same group play each other is if they make the final. This format helps keep everything as balanced as possible.
Will FIFA Ever Expand the World Cup?
FIFA has expanded the World Cup tournament a few times in its history. They are planning on and already announced an expansion for the 2026 World Cup as well.
As long as it will create more money, FIFA will always be open to bringing new teams into the mix. They don’t want to make the tournament too long, so there might be a max at some point.
At the same time, having more countries involved in the hopes of winning at all is never a bad thing. Even if they lose hope after the first week with a loss, it gets people to tune in and pay attention.
Is FIFA Qualifying a Big Deal?
Only a few countries each year can pretty much assume that they will make the World Cup. However, teams do need to take care of business so that they aren’t shut out of the biggest tournament.
Europe might seem like a particularly easy path towards making the World Cup, as they get 13 automatic bids. However, just in this past World Cup, Italy was shut out of the tournament. The bids start to go pretty fast, and a few poor results can lead to a very embarrassing time.
Most FIFA qualifying tournaments get very good ratings as countries want to support their team at the World Cup. It might not get the international appeal that the World Cup by itself will get, but they are usually well attended.
Final Thoughts
It would be impossible to have a true World Cup with all 200+ countries in it at once. Qualifying allows the cream to rise to the top. Most people feel like 32 teams do a pretty good job of representing the best of the best, but 48 should solve any fringe issues.
Even moving to 48 teams, World Cup qualifiers will still carry huge implications. Countries trying to make their first ever World Cup will all of a sudden have a much better chance starting in 2026.
- Also Read: FIFA World Cup: Winners By Year
