In what seems to be a new development, the qualifying fixtures for South American countries aiming to be at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar have been postponed from the initial date to a new one, it has been confirmed. The games were originally supposed to be played this March, but they have now been hit with postponement following concerns over the coronavirus quarantine regulations and restrictions.
The Republic of Ireland has been dealt a big blow ahead of their World Cup 2022 qualifier against Serbia next month following the injury to defender John Egan. The Sheffield United had to be stretched off in the second half of the Premier League clash with hosts West Ham United on Monday night. John Egan suffered a serious leg injury during a challenge with West Ham United forward Jesse Lingard during the second half of the Premier League clash with the Hammers and the said leg injury is on course to make him sit out the aforementioned World Cup 2022 qualifier with the Serbians.
World Cup 2022 hosts Qatar have unveiled Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium, which is one of the eight match venues scheduled to play host to games during the tournament. The 2022 FIFA World Cup tournament in Qatar will take place over November and December 2022. The tournament will last for a period of 27 days between November 21, 2022 and December 18, 2022. The Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium was unveiled earlier in the week thus making it the fourth match venue to be unveiled for the World Cup 2022 tournament in Qatar. Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium has a capacity of 40,000 and it is located in the city of Al Rayyan.
All the plans for the forthcoming 2022 World Cup tournament are already taking shape as preparations have been intensified. Part of the preparations includes the imminent unveiling of one of the stadiums to be used for the main event in the coming two years.
The corona virus chaos has affected the sports world, especially football very hard. Since it is a Body contact game, it poses a high chance that one player infected with COVID-19 will spread the infection to other players. Thus many of the nations have postponed their football leagues.
The qualification rounds for World Cup 2022 are about to commence from September 2020 as the pandemic restrictions start to abate across the world. The 2022 World Cup would be the 22nd edition. It is a quadrennial championship of the men’s international football association that would be contested by national teams that are members of FIFA.
The scheduled venues are in Qatar which is the first Muslim country and of the Arab world to host this world tournament. It is also the second World Cup to be held in Asia after the 2002 tournament that was held in Japan and South Korea. This edition would include 32 teams, though a proposition had been put in for expanding the same top 48 teams. France is the reigning world champions who would be defending the cup.
This World Cup also deviates from the usual norm of being held in the summer months. The tournament is scheduled for the winter months, to start in late November and to go on till mid of December. The time frame has been reduced as well to 28 days with the final to be held on Qatar National Day, that of 18th December 2022.
Roberto Martinez contract with Belgium has been extended and he will be staying at the team till the World Cup 2022. His contract with Belgium was to expire after Euro 2020 but with the suspension of football, activity has led the campaign to be postponed to 2021.
Before being the manager of Belgium National Football team he has coached clubs like Everton, Wigan and Swansea. He signed the contract with the team on 2016 and has led them in World Cup 2018where they were placed in the third position by defeating England on the playoff. With the extension,of the contract, he will be leading one of the best teams whichconsist of golden players of the present into two major tournaments of the football world.
The Losail International Stadium, located at the Qetaifan North Island of the Lusail City in Qatar is going to host the opening as well as the final game of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. In this regard, the Sigge Architects and ADMARES are in process to develop 16 floating hotels that will serve all the fans and tourists coming to Qatar for the games. The Qetaifan North Island is the primary waterfront destination of the city. It has been planned to provide all the needs and requirements of the tourists and the masses with facilities, projects, and activities for entertainment along with the fan villages in course of the tournament. This includes floating hotels as well.
The hosting north island spans roughly over 1.3 million square meters that include 830,000 square meters comprising seven beaches and other attractions. The floating hotels have come up as a sustainable solution that will have less impact on the ecological system. The hotels can accommodate a lot of people. ADMARES is famous for making real estate on the water that is valuable and sustainable. They generate structures that are floating and supported by piles in an innovative way. Recently, this real estate company has collaborated with an architect firm from Finland, the Sigge Architects, just for making hotels in Qatar, especially for the FIFA World Cup 2022.
Read MoreFIFA has finalized and announced the schedule for World Cup 2022. In case you have been expecting some bad news, it is probably worse than what you have imagined it to be. The competition is going to take place in Qatar and it is going to start on 21st November 2022 and ended on 18th December. This is going to be the shortest tournament since 1978 when the competition consisted of just 16 teams. It is only half of the number of teams in the tournament right now.
The decision to move the dates from the time to summer to winter had been finalized in spite of the repeated objections from the prime football team of Europe which includes the Premier League. They had argued that it is going to disrupt the busy club season. As a matter of fact, the draft schedules of the year have already been circulated to all football clubs.
Read MoreFIFA president Gianni Infantino has revealed his displeasure at the level of attendance at the World Cup qualifier between North and South Korea. The match which was played at Pyongyang Kim II Sung Stadium was played to an empty stadium.
The match, which saw a few select officials in the match, was watched by Infantino. The FIFA president revealed later on FIFA website that he was looking forward to crowds in the stands for the historic match but was disappointed to see empty stands.
North Korea also frustrated South Korean officials and TV companies who were unable to broadcast the match live. Fans had to follow the match on the internet due to breakdown in logistics regarding access and visa for foreign journalists.
FIFA and AFC were able to broadcast the game via online text commentary posted on their websites which was a disappointment to many.
The match was the first match between both nations in Pyongyang and was seen as a historic milestone for both countries technically at war.
There have been increasing tensions in recent weeks with North Korea testing missiles after a breakdown of US-led talks regarding its weapons program.
The local North Korean media did not have much enthusiasm regarding the game with a short summary of the game released by the agency.
The game ended in a stalemate with both sides playing a conservative game according to match reports from the game. The return leg will be held in Seoul in November.
FIFA revealed after the game that they will continue to pursue different avenues towards bringing fair play to the sport.
The World governing body had earlier secured an unprecedented agreement with the Iranian government for women to watch football games. It remains to be seen whether this would apply to hermit countries like North Korea.