Five Amazing Facts You Should Know About The Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup
A total of 32 teams, including host country Qatar, will be competing in the 22nd edition of the FIFA World Cup when the tournament kicks off on November 28, 2022. Played every four years, except in 1942 and 1946 when it was not held because of the Second World War, the first world cup was held in 1930 and has since become the world’s most watched sporting event.
Here are five facts you should know about the FIFA Qatar 2022 World Cup.
First-Ever World Cup in the Middle East
Qatar 2022 will be the first time the world cup will be held in the Middle East and the second time an Asia country is hosting the tournament after South Korea/Japan in 2002. With a population of about 2.7 million, Qatar has the third-largest gas and oil reserves and is one of the fastest-growing countries in the field of tourism. While Qatar has been a regular participant in the continental AFC Asian Cup, the country has not qualified for any FIFA World Cup since its Independence in 1971. It will be a historical moment for the Middle East country in its opening match against Ecuador on November 20 at the Al Bayt Stadium.
First Winter World Cup
To avoid the intense Qatar summer heat, the 2022 World Cup was decided to be played in the winter between November and mid-December. Previously, other World Cups were typically held in June and July. Temperatures in Qatar during the summer can be as high as 42 degrees which can be exhausting for the players.
Messi and Ronaldo’s Last World Cup?
For over a decade, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have dominated men’s football, winning 12 ballon D’or out of 14 winners from 2008 to 2022.
After making four World Cups with Argentina, scoring six goals, and making five assists in 19 appearances, the Qatar 2022 might be the last world Cup Lionel Messi will ever play. Messi made his international debut in 2005, and with 90 goals in 164 appearances for Argentina, a glorious era is coming to an end.
The 35-year-old Paris St-Germain forward hinted during an interview in October 2022 that Qatar 2022 will surely be his last World Cup.
Similarly, Cristiano Ronaldo has made 17 appearances in the World Cup for Portugal and has scored seven goals in total. The Qatar 2022 is expected to be the last for the 37-year-old who has had a slow start in the English Premier.
Semi-automated offside technology
FIFA has approved a semi-automated offside technology that will reduce VAR offline decisions from 70 to 25 seconds. 12 multi-tracking cameras will be mounted on the roof of each Stadium to track the ball and on each player, which will send data 50 times per second to calculate their exact position on the pitch. The trackers will trigger an alert to the video assistant referee boot of which would be relayed to the on-pitch referee. In addition, a sensor in the middle of the ball will send data 500 times a second to determine the exact kick-point.
“We are very positive. It is ready,” said Fifa’s head of refereeing Pierluigi Collina.
Most expensive World Cup
Putting the money spent on infrastructure, building new stadiums, and renovating old ones, it cost Qatar around $220 billion to host the Winter World Cup, making it the most expensive ever. This is about 14.6 times bigger than what Brazil spent to host the 2014 World Cup. The 64 matches will be played in 8 stadiums with six of the Stadiums having 40,000 capacity. The Lusail Stadium, which will host the final of the tournament on December 18, is the largest of the eight stadiums, with a capacity of roughly 80,000. All the Stadiums are installed with air-conditioning systems that will pump in the cool air as the temperature can rise to 30 degrees during the day.
