2022 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)

2022 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)
Tournament details
Dates	25 March 2021 – 29 March 2022
Teams	55 (from 1 confederation)

The European section of the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification will act as qualifiers for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, to be held in Qatar, for national teams that are members of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). A total of 13 slots in the final tournament are available for UEFA teams.[1]

Entrants

All 55 FIFA-affiliated national teams from UEFA will enter qualification. On 9 December 2019, the World Anti-Doping Agency handed Russia a four-year ban from all major sporting events, after RUSADA was found non-compliant for handing over manipulating lab data to investigators.[2] However, the Russia national team could still enter qualification, as the ban only applies to the final tournament to decide the world champions. If Russia were to qualify, Russian footballers could still potentially compete at the tournament, pending a decision from FIFA. However, a team representing Russia, which uses the Russian flag and anthem, cannot participate under the WADA decision.[3] The decision is pending appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.[4]

Format

The qualification format was confirmed by the UEFA Executive Committee during their meeting in Nyon, Switzerland on 4 December 2019, pending validation from FIFA.[5][6] The qualification will depend, in part, on results from the 2020–21 UEFA Nations League, although to a lesser degree than UEFA Euro 2020. The structure will maintain UEFA's usual 'group stage/playoff stage' structure, with only the specific format of the play-offs amended.[7][8]

Group stage: 10 groups of 5 or 6 teams (with the 4 teams that make the 2021 UEFA Nations League Finals put into the smaller groups) with group winners qualifying for the World Cup finals.
Play-off stage: The 10 group runners-up would be joined by the best 2 Nations League group winners, based on the Nations League overall ranking, that finished outside the top two of their qualifying group. These 12 teams will be drawn into three play-off paths, playing two rounds of single-match play-offs (semi-finals and finals, with the home teams to be drawn), with the 3 path winners qualifying for the World Cup.

The UEFA Executive Committee also approved the use of the video assistant referee system for the qualifiers, subject to the approval of FIFA.

Schedule

Below is the schedule of the European qualifiers for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.[6]

The matchdays planned to take place in June 2021 will be moved following the rescheduling of UEFA Euro 2020 to June and July 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[9] To allow for the completion of the qualifying group stage in November 2021 as scheduled, some windows may be expanded to include three matchdays.[10]

Stage	Matchday	Dates
Qualifying group stage	Matchday 1	25–27 March 2021
	Matchday 2	28–30 March 2021
	Matchday 3	TBD (originally 4–5 June 2021)
	Matchday 4	TBD (originally 7–8 June 2021)
	Matchday 5	2–4 September 2021
	Matchday 6	5–7 September 2021
	Matchday 7	7–9 October 2021
	Matchday 8	10–12 October 2021
	Matchday 9	11–13 November 2021
	Matchday 10	14–16 November 2021
Play-offs	Semi-finals	24–25 March 2022
Play-offs	Finals	28–29 March 2022

First round

Draw

The draw for the first round (group stage) was originally planned to be held on 29 November 2020,[11] though the date is subject to further confirmation by UEFA. On 18 June 2020, the UEFA Executive Committee approved the draw regulations for the qualifying group stage, subject to confirmation by FIFA.[12] The 55 teams will be seeded into six pots based on the FIFA World Rankings of November 2020, after the conclusion of the league phase of the 2020–21 UEFA Nations League. Pots 1 to 5 will contain ten teams, while Pot 6 will contain five teams. The teams will be drawn into ten groups: five groups of five teams (Groups A–E) and five groups of six teams (Groups F–J). The draw will start with Pot 1 and complete with Pot 6, from where a team will be drawn and assigned to the first available group in alphabetical order. Therefore, each six-team group will contain one team from each of the six pots, while each five-team group will contain one team from each of the first five pots.

The following restrictions will be applied with computer assistance:[10]

Nations League finalists: The four teams participating in the 2021 UEFA Nations League Finals will be drawn into a group with five teams (Groups A–E). Additionally, these groups can only contain a maximum of one Nations League finalist.
Prohibited clashes: For political reasons, matches between following pairs of teams are considered prohibited clashes, unable to be drawn into the same group: Armenia / Azerbaijan, Gibraltar / Spain, Kosovo / Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo / Serbia, Kosovo / Russia, Russia / Ukraine.
Winter venues: A maximum of two teams identified as venues with high or medium risk of severe winter conditions can be placed in each group: Belarus, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Russia, Ukraine.
- Two high-risk winter venues (Faroe Islands and Iceland) generally cannot host games in March or November, and therefore cannot be drawn together.
Excessive travel: A maximum of one pair of teams identified with excessive travel distance in relation to other countries can be placed in each group:
- Azerbaijan: with Iceland, Gibraltar, Portugal.
- Iceland: with Armenia, Cyprus, Georgia, Israel.
- Kazakhstan: with Andorra, England, Faroe Islands, France, Gibraltar, Iceland, Malta, Northern Ireland, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Spain, Wales.