Qualification

FIFA's six continental confederations organised their own qualifying competitions. All 211 FIFA member associations were eligible to enter qualification. The Qatari national team, as hosts, qualified automatically for the tournament. However, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) obliged Qatar to participate in the Asian qualifying stage as the first two rounds also act as qualification for the 2023 AFC Asian Cup.^[88] Since Qatar reached the final stage as winners in their group, Lebanon, the fifth-best second place team, advanced instead.^[89] France, the reigning World Cup champions, qualified for the event through European qualification.^[90]

Saint Lucia initially entered CONCACAF qualification but withdrew from it before their first match. North Korea withdrew from the AFC qualifying round due to safety concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Both American Samoa and Samoa withdrew before the OFC qualification draw due to travel restrictions following the pandemic.^[91] Tonga withdrew after the 2022 Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha'apai eruption and tsunami.^[92] Due to COVID-19 outbreaks in their squads, Vanuatu and Cook Islands also withdrew because of the travel restrictions.^[93]^[94]

Of the 32 nations qualified to play at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, 24 countries competed at the previous tournament in 2018.^[95] Qatar were the only team making their debut in the FIFA World Cup, becoming the first hosts to make their tournament debut since Italy in 1934. The Netherlands, Ecuador, Ghana, Cameroon, and the United States returned to the tournament after missing the 2018 tournament. Canada returned after 36 years, their only prior appearance being in 1986.^[96] Wales made their first appearance in 64 years—the longest-ever gap for any team, their only previous participation having been in 1958.^[97]

Italy, four-time winners and reigning European champions, failed to qualify for a second successive World Cup for the first time in their history, losing in the qualification play-off semi-finals.^[98] The Italians were the only former champions and the highest ranked team in the FIFA Men's World Rankings that failed to qualify. Italy were also the fourth team to have failed to qualify for the upcoming World Cup after having won the previous UEFA European Championship, following Czechoslovakia in 1978, Denmark in 1994, and Greece in 2006.^[99] The previous World Cup hosts, Russia, were disqualified from competing due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.^[100]

Chile, the 2015 and 2016 Copa América winners, failed to qualify for the second consecutive time. Nigeria were defeated by Ghana on away goals in Confederation of African Football (CAF) final playoff round, having qualified for the previous three World Cups and six out of the last seven. Egypt, Panama, Colombia, Peru, Iceland, and Sweden, all of whom qualified for the 2018 World Cup, did not qualify for the 2022 tournament.^[101] Ghana were the lowest ranked team to qualify, ranked 61st.^[102]

The qualified teams, listed by region, with numbers in parentheses indicating final positions in the FIFA Men's World Ranking before the tournament were:^[103]

AFC (6)

Australia (38)
Iran (20)
Japan (24)
Qatar (50) (hosts) (debut)
Saudi Arabia (51)
South Korea (28)

CAF (5)

Cameroon (43)
Ghana (61)
Morocco (22)
Senegal (18)
Tunisia (30)

CONCACAF (4)

Canada (41)
Costa Rica (31)
Mexico (13)
United States (16)

CONMEBOL (4)

Argentina (3)
Brazil (1)
Ecuador (44)
Uruguay (14)

OFC (0)

None qualified

UEFA (13)

Belgium (2)
Croatia (12)
Denmark (10)
England (5)
France (4)
Germany (11)
Netherlands (8)
Poland (26)
Portugal (9)
Serbia (21)
Spain (7)
Switzerland (15)
Wales (19)

Squads

Before submitting their final squad for the tournament, teams named a provisional squad of up to 55 players. Teams were required to have their 55-player roster submitted to FIFA by 21 October.^[104] Teams were required to name their final squads by 13 November.^[105] In August 2022, FIFA increased the final squad size to 26 players from a total of 23 players at the 2018 edition.^[106] All teams had a total of 26 players in their final squads except for France and Iran, who chose 25 players.^[107]^[108]

Draw

The final draw was held at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center in Doha, Qatar,^[109] on 1 April 2022,^[110] 19:00 AST, prior to the completion of qualification. The two winners of the inter-confederation play-offs and the winner of the Path A of the UEFA play-offs were not known at the time of the draw.^[111] The draw was attended by 2,000 guests and was led by Carli Lloyd, Jermaine Jenas and sports broadcaster Samantha Johnson, assisted by the likes of Cafu (Brazil), Lothar Matthäus (Germany), Adel Ahmed Malalla (Qatar), Ali Daei (Iran), Bora Milutinović (Serbia/Mexico), Jay-Jay Okocha (Nigeria), Rabah Madjer (Algeria), and Tim Cahill (Australia).^[112]^[113]

For the draw, 32 teams were allocated into four pots based on the FIFA Men's World Rankings of 31 March 2022.^[114] Pot 1 contained host Qatar (who were automatically assigned to position A1) and the best seven teams. Pot 2 contained the next best eight teams, with the next best eight teams into pot 3. Pot 4 contained the five lowest-ranked teams, along with the placeholders for the two inter-confederation play-off winners and the UEFA Path A play-off winner. Teams from the same confederation could not be drawn into the same group except for UEFA teams, for which there was at least one and no more than two per group.^[115]

This principle also applied to the placeholder teams, with constraints applying based on the confederation of both potential winners of each play-off tie. The draw started with pot 1 and ended with pot 4, with each team selected then allocated into the first available group alphabetically. The position for the team within the group would then be drawn (for the purpose of the match schedule), with the pot 1 teams automatically drawn into position 1 of each group.^[115] The pots for the draw are shown below.^[116]

More information Pot 1, Pot 2 ...

Draw^[117]
Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Qatar (51) (hosts) Brazil (1) Belgium (2) France (3) Argentina (4) England (5) Spain (7) Portugal (8)	Mexico (9) Netherlands (10) Denmark (11) Germany (12) Uruguay (13) Switzerland (14) United States (15) Croatia (16)	Senegal (20) Iran (21) Japan (23) Morocco (24) Serbia (25) Poland (26) South Korea (29) Tunisia (35)	Cameroon (37) Canada (38) Ecuador (46) Saudi Arabia (49) Ghana (61) Wales (18) ^[M] Costa Rica (31) ^[N] Australia (42) ^[O]

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Draw result

The eight groups were formed randomly, selecting one team from each of the four pots. Two teams from the same confederation could not be placed into the same group, with the exception of UEFA teams, where up to two teams could be in the same group. The only team whose position in the draw was predetermined was the host Qatar, who were placed into position A1.

More information Pos, Team ...

Group A
Pos	Team
A1	Qatar
A2	Ecuador
A3	Senegal
A4	Netherlands

Group B
Pos	Team
B1	England
B2	Iran
B3	United States
B4	Wales

Group C
Pos	Team
C1	Argentina
C2	Saudi Arabia
C3	Mexico
C4	Poland

Group D
Pos	Team
D1	France
D2	Australia
D3	Denmark
D4	Tunisia

Group E
Pos	Team
E1	Spain
E2	Costa Rica
E3	Germany
E4	Japan

Group F
Pos	Team
F1	Belgium
F2	Canada
F3	Morocco
F4	Croatia

Group G
Pos	Team
G1	Brazil
G2	Serbia
G3	Switzerland
G4	Cameroon

Group H
Pos	Team
H1	Portugal
H2	Ghana
H3	Uruguay
H4	South Korea

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