World Cup 2022 Full Schedule

Just as the last six World cup tournaments, this competition in Qatar features 32 teams but is played in a shorter timeframe of just 28 days. Your World cup 2022 betting schedule is tighter than ever before. Here’s what’s what: 

Tournament: Just as in the most recent World cup tournaments. We see eight groups of four teams batting it out in Qatar. The top two teams in each group qualify for the second round, or Round of 16, to be followed by the quarter-finals, semi-finals, third-place playoff and then the final itself. That’s a total of 64 matches to ne played across eight host venues in just 28 days.  

Qualifiers 

As of now, 29 of the 32 teams have been confirmed for Qatar 2022. 12 of the 13 European teams that will feature have booked their places, among them four-times winners Germany and holders France. The final team will be the winner between Wales and Scotland or Ukraine.

The five African teams to qualify have been confirmed as Ghana, Senegal, Cameroon, Morocco and Tunisia. From South America, five-times winners Brazil have been joined by rivals Argentina, along with Ecuador and Uruguay. The Asian qualifiers to date are Japan, South Korea, Iran and Saudi Arabia. And then hosts Qatar, of course.

One of the most surprising finalists have been Canada, who topped the CONCACAF section to qualify for their first finals in 36 years. They will be joined by the United States and Mexico.

The remaining two qualifiers will come from intercontinental playoff fixtures between United Arab Emirates or Australia and Peru, and then Costa Rica or New Zealand.

When the final schedule will be finalized? 

The World Cup draw took place in Doha at the beginning of April 2022. At that time, only 29 of the qualifiers had been confirmed. The three remaining qualifiers will be the winner of European Playoff path A (Wales, Scotland or Ukraine) and then the winners of two intercontinental playoff games, scheduled for June.

The Playoffs 

Only three more teams are to be finalized for the main event kicking off in November 2022. One more European nation is to be added, but at the moment the dates for the remaining European qualifying matches are up in the air. Scotland must play Ukraine in the Playoff Path A semi-final before the victor in that game takes on Wales, vanquishers of Austria, in a winner-takes-all affair.

The two remaining qualifiers will be determined by intercontinental playoffs.

First of all, the United Arab Emirates and Australia will face off on 7th June in the fourth and final playoff round of the AFC section. The winner of that game will then take on the team that finished fifth in the CONMEBOL qualifying section – Peru.

The remaining playoff pitches the fourth-place finisher of the CONCACAF section – Costa Rica – against the winner of the OFC section – New Zealand.

These intercontinental playoff games will be one-off matches to be played in Qatar on 13th and 14th June.

29 teams have now been confirmed as participants at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Among those to have qualified include defending champions France, five-times winners Brazil and four-times winners Germany. Indeed, nine of the current top-ten FIFA-ranked teams have booked their tickets, with the notable exception of European champions and four-times winners Italy. The Italians were surprisingly beaten by North Macedonia in the Playoff semi-finals. North Macedonia were then vanquished by Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal in the final. Poland are the other Playoff winners to date, with Path A still to be decided.

Other notable teams to have reached the finals include former champions Spain, Argentina, Uruguay and England, while some of the surprise packages include Canada, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Ecuador.

What are the important dates to make note of for your World Cup betting schedule? Well first of all the qualification process must be completed, with the European play-off paths set to be played out

Qualification dates

The dates to decide the three remaining qualifiers are set as followers:

✔️European Playoff Path A: TBC

✔️AFC fourth round qualification game – UAE Vs Australia: 7th June

✔️Inter-confederation playoffs (featuring CONMEBOL, AFC, CONCACAF and OFC teams): 13^th and 14^th June

Tournament schedule

And then, ladies and gentleman, it’s the main event:

• World Cup 2022 opening group games: 22nd November
• Round of 16: 3^rdDecember – 6^th December
• Quarter-finals: 9^thand 10^th December
• Semi-finals: 13^thand 14^th December
• Third-place playoff: 17^thDecember
• Final: 18^thDecember

Times

The times of matches are a mixed blessing for Irish viewers. While the games will all be played in the daytime, some will prove a little early for those who find themselves at work.

• First two rounds of group matches: 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm (Ireland time)
• Final round of group matches and knockout games: 3pm and 7pm (Ireland time)
• Final: 3pm (Ireland time)

The draw

The Qatar 2022 World Cup finals draw took place in early April 2022 at a star-studded affair in Doha. The eight groups were selected and some intriguing match-ups were thrown up. Here is the draw in full:

• Group A: Qatar (hosts), Ecuador, Senegal, Netherlands
• Group B: England, Iran, USA, Ukraine/Scotland/Wales
• Group C: Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Poland
• Group D: France, Australia/UAE/Peru, Denmark, Tunisia
• Group E: Spain, Costa Rica/New Zealand, Germany, Japan
• Group F: Belgium, Canada, Morocco, Croatia
• Group G: Brazil, Serbia, Switzerland, Cameroon
• Group H: Portugal, Ghana, Uruguay, South Korea

This is the first ever World cup that is not played in a northern hemisphere summer. The awarding of the event to Qatar caused controversy by the nature of the fact the traditional World cup staging times of June/July would have fallen during a period of extreme heat in the Asian nation. A change to the scheduling time was therefore essential.

The knock-on consequences of this change of schedule is the fact that this World cup doesn’t fall outside of the European football season. With the vast majority of top players based in Europe, that means that the main leagues in countries such as England, Spain, France, Italy and Germany will be impacted by the 28-game tournament falling inside the regular season times. In England in particular – where there has never traditionally been a winter break – the World cup has a huge impact on the regular season scheduling.

Major continental events such as the Champions League have also been forced to separate fixtures in an unprecedented way. And all European seasons will also be extended into the summer months to account for the timing of this unique Word Cup.

So you now know when the important dates are for the coming World cup. You also know the sort of bets to back and even how to strategise your betting. So the next question is: which bookmakers should I use for my World cup betting? Here’s the answer: