THE World Cup 2022 Book (eBook)

INTRODUCTION

The best teams in the world will kick off the 2022 FIFA World Cup in November with more than a billion fans watching. A new champion will emerge. International soccer supremacy—and the right to be called one of history’s greatest teams—is at stake in Qatar. Star-studded teams from every corner of the globe will arrive in the Middle Eastern oasis—social media will be abuzz, cameras will flicker, as countries will collide and a new champion will emerge as one of history’s greatest teams!

CRISTIANO RONALDO, MESSI, NEYMAR, HARRY KANE, and MBAPPÉ are but a handful of stars that will sparkle at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. It’s an exciting time when the best players in the world flaunt their stuff in stadiums filled with eager fans. Ticket stubs will be saved, souvenirs purchased as the best nations in the world battle it out for the illustrious FIFA World Cup. The beat of Brazil’s samba, the ferocity of Argentina’s presence, the grace of the French, the daunting Germans, the impressive English, Mexico, the unequivocal rock stars of CONCACAF Mexico…all 32 nations will have a chance as the month-long event plays out.

The most anticipated sporting event is back. The FIFA World Cup will be played in Qatar. Proponents argue that this is a grand opportunity for the Middle East to showcase its love for soccer. Indeed, this is the first time that a Middle Eastern nation has hosted the FIFA World Cup. Critics point out issues such as allegedly accepting bribes, unsuitable weather, a lack of experience (not to mention prestige) as a top soccer-playing nation, alleged human rights violations, along with geographic and economic challenges for travelers to arrive and watch the games. Despite the criticism, however, Qatar—a small, oil-rich nation jutting out into the Persian Gulf that neighbors Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates—will go down in history as the twenty-second nation to host the FIFA World Cup. Prior to Qatar 2022, there have been 21 World Cup champions—an elite group.

Previous World Cup winners:

2018: France

2014: Germany

2010: Spain

2006: Italy

2002: Brazil

1998: France

1994: Brazil

1990: West Germany

1986: Argentina

1982: Italy

1978: Argentina

1974: West Germany

1970: Brazil

1966: England

1962: Brazil

1958: Brazil

1954: West Germany

1950: Uruguay

1938: Italy

1934: Italy

1930: Uruguay

Previous host nations include Russia, Brazil, South Africa, Germany, Korea-Japan, France, United States, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Argentina, West Germany, Mexico, England, Chile, Sweden, Switzerland, Brazil, France, Italy, and Uruguay.

For Qatar, 2022 will be its first opportunity to host the World Cup. Instrumental in organizing the Cup were Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani (whose older brother is Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Emir of Qatar), Hassan Al Thawadi, Nasser Al-Khater, and Colin Smith. In 2010, when FIFA announced Qatar as the 2022 host, infrastructure planning began right away. In the lead-up to the competition, many new stadiums have been erected specifically for the World Cup and with the help of German engineering. Each new stadium was made to be unique and beautiful to reflect the local culture. With the exception of Al-Shamal Stadium, which is situated in the north, the games will be played on the eastern side of Qatar.

Everything you could possibly want in a tournament is present: drama, tension, rivalries, top goal-scorers, elite defenders and goalies, midfield magicians, free-kick specialists, penalty-kick tendencies, coaches, strategies, formations, possession-based and free-flowing styles; it will be one for the record books! Later in the book, we’ll get into the background of each stadium, detailed predictions for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, overviews of past World Cups, and much more.

Once again, the United States—the all-time leader in the Olympics—is competing for the World Cup.

The United States is intertwined in international sports in more ways than one.

Broadly speaking, the United States hosts the biggest competitions in the world. The upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup will be jointly hosted by Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Notably, during the 1994 FIFA World Cup, the US set attendance records that have yet to be broken. What’s more, the Super Bowl, NBA Championship, World Series, NHL Stanley Cup, and the tennis US Open are highly anticipated sporting events that captivate international audiences. These sports conjure up a myriad of athletes such as Tom Brady, Kobe Bryant, Babe Ruth, Wayne Gretzky, and Roger Federer.

The FIFA World Cup, on the other hand, is the world’s passion—the most popular sporting event on earth! The amount of beer to be consumed: mind-boggling! (And the list of the many beers to be consumed would almost require its own chapter.) The amount of smartphone activity in Qatar: head-spinning! The largest sporting event the world has ever known captivates more than a billion fans!

World Cup champions make up an exclusive list. There are also the great teams, such as Brazil 1970, Brazil 2002, Italy 2006, Spain 2010, and Germany 2014. Not to mention, there are a few teams over the years that didn’t hoist the trophy but gained recognition, including Brazil (1982) “arte de futbol”; Cameroon (1990), “the indomitable lions”; and South Korea (2002), the first Asian team to make the semi-finals.

The largest sporting event in history has now attracted millions of passionate soccer fans from the United States, who, to the best of their ability, are duplicating the frenzy of emotion felt around the world. Reflecting fervor worldwide, the pastime of watching a game at the local bar only seems to be intensifying in the US. It’s a firm reminder that, after all, the United States—the standing record-holder for highest attendance in World Cup history (World Cup 1994)—has officially joined the world’s game and has bars across the nation fully equipped for World Cup action in Qatar, and subsequently for World Cup 2026. Around the world, bars from England, Germany, Japan, Egypt, Australia, Argentina, and Brazil—every corner of the globe—will be filled to capacity with eager fans celebrating each game.

For people interested in the finer nuances, a few of the rules and procedures for the World Cup have been adjusted over the years. For example, back in 1994 there were 24 teams in the tournament. By 2018, FIFA banged the table and said 32 teams will compete. (More on this to come.)

For this World Cup, all 32 teams—from Europe, South America, North America, Africa, and Asia—went through an accelerated qualification process* due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which had set things back. Despite the pandemic, which affected people worldwide, each team worked hard to arrive at this point and become a major part of history. We’ll take a constructive look at each team, the players, and coaches, and break down all aspects of World Cup Qatar. And what fun it’s going to be!

Throughout my life some people have asked me why soccer is so great. They know people worship the sport; they know of its allure; yet they don’t quite understand its popularity. Most people might answer something about the “beautiful game” and how “Pele learned to play with a grapefruit.” But my answer would be that it’s great because there is no prerequisite to qualify at the highest levels. Have you ever seen an NBA lineup? Seven feet tall is not normal. There aren’t too many 6’9” and taller people in the world, and if they do exist, they tend to find their way onto a basketball court. That’s the nature of basketball; it has always been an above-the-rim sport.

Soccer, on the other hand, is based on pure skill. You can be any height to succeed. Though, common sense has shown that players shorter than 6’3” tend to do better as such physiques have a quicker response time. Some players, such as Zidane, Henry, and Ibrahimovic do excel at heights 6’2” and above, but most tend to be under six feet. There’s a famous picture of Pele, riding on the shoulders of others after winning the legendary 1970 FIFA World Cup in the Azteca before over 100,000 spectators—and he’s all of 5’5”, thought to be one of the best players of all time.

So in soccer, only the best stand out, and the players are elite, fit athletes who are better than the best in the world. This, I believe, in part, is why soccer is so endearing to people across continents. Of course, there is the simplicity of the game (just get the ball into the goal) combined with the complexities of the game (formations, defensive posturing, athletic one-on-one ability) that make simply getting the ball into a goal challenging. The FIFA World Cup represents the biggest stage in the world for these elite players.

When Uruguay hosted the first World Cup in 1930, it’s fair to assume that no one predicted how big it would become. Nothing that came before it really compared. The most recent World Cup in Russia in 2018 carried on the multimillion-dollar tradition. Qatar 2022 will, no doubt, create new memories and new legends. To win the Cup takes a lot of skill, perseverance, and luck, whether it’s the ball hitting off the post, an offside call that wasn’t offside, a foul that wasn’t called, or something else altogether (like the late Maradona’s “hand of God”). Eventually, there will only...