2022 World Cup calendar: draw, group stage and playoff matches schedule

The draw for the 2022 World Cup has taken place in Qatar. 29 teams have known who their opponents in their groups will be, and the last three participants will be announced in June. Initially, FIFA planned to complete the selection in March with intercontinental play-offs, but due to the coronavirus, it was postponed to the summer.

Make sure to check out Emmanuel Adebayor's exclusive expert predictions for the upcoming World Cup!

The composition of the pots was determined a day before the draw according to the March FIFA rankings. 29 national teams were divided into 4 pots (8 in the first three and 5 in the last). The federation has determined the last three slots in the fourth pot violating the sporting principle.

Therefore, if the play-offs were held now, and not in June, Wales or Peru would be in the third pot. But instead of them, the Tunisian team got here. The confirmed seeding pots for the World Cup draw are as follows:

The 2022 World Cup will be unique; for the first time the tournament will be held in the autumn-winter season. FIFA has postponed the World Cup due to the high summer temperature in the Persian Gulf. In view of this, the 2022 World Cup will be one of the shortest in many years - only 28 days. The last World Championships were held in 31-32 days, and from 2026 they will become even longer.

One more feature: due to the "short" tournament, the group stage will be played 4 games a day, and not 3, as it was before. Moreover, the opening match between Qatar and Ecuador will start on November 21 at 13:00: usually this game is hosted on a separate, very first day. For example, only Russia and Saudi Arabia played on June 14, 2018.

Group stage matches will be played at 13:00, 16:00, 19:00 and 22:00 local time. In Qatar, as in Russia, there is no transition to winter time, so Qatari time in December will coincide with Moscow. At what time the group stage matches will take place, FIFA will determine later, as well as the venues.

The playoffs will start immediately after the group round without any rest day on December 3rd. The final will take place in Lusail on 18 December. A week later, the traditional English football Boxing day starts in England. Here is a list of all matches, the time will be announced later.

Analysts of the betting agency Betcity have already put a line on the winner of the tournament. The main favorite is the Brazilian team (odds 6.00), they also believe in France a little less (odds 7.00), and then the teams of England and Spain follow (quotation 8.00).