How Australia’s World Cup fate will be determined

Australia still has to qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup – but the draw for the tournament proper takes place in the small hours of Saturday morning. Here’s what you need to know.

What time and date is the World Cup draw?

The draw for the 2022 FIFA World Cup takes place in Doha, Qatar at 7pm on April 1st local time. For Australians, that means 3am on Saturday, April 2 (AEDT).

How does the World Cup draw work?

The host nation, along with the seven top-ranked teams in the FIFA world rankings, are placed in the first pot, and cannot be drawn against each other. They are: Qatar , Argentina, Brazil, Belgium, England, France, Portugal, and Spain.

The rules for the draw mean that despite each tier of eight teams being divided by their FIFA ranking, multiple teams from the same confederation cannot be drawn alongside each other, apart from European teams, where no more than two can be in the same group.

For example, that means that Uruguay in pot two cannot be drawn into either Brazil or Argentina’s group.

Can Australia still qualify for the World Cup?

Yes. After finishing third in their group behind Japan and Saudi Arabia, Australia must play both the third-placed team in the other Asian qualifying group, and then, if victorious, the fifth-placed team in South America.

Peru locked up fifth spot earlier this week, and will await the winner of Australia and UAE.

Unlike in previous World Cups, these ties will not be played home-and-away in each respective nation. Instead, both will be single-game, sudden death matches at a neutral site in Qatar.

Many will remember Australia having to navigate their way through a two-legged play-off against Syria, and then doing the same against Honduras, back in 2017.

How can I watch the World Cup Draw?

The ceremony will be live on FIFA’s official website – but be warned. These things are usually filled with flowery nonsense and take hours to do what could be done in a couple of minutes. Once the draw gets going, it’s fine, but the action is usually preceded by a bunch of other stuff.

Which teams have qualified for the World Cup so far?

So far, 29 of the 32 teams have been confirmed.

Asia: Qatar (hosts), Japan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, South Korea

Africa: Cameroon, Ghana, Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia

Europe: Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland

North America: Canada, Mexico, USA

South America: Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Uruguay

Which teams can still qualify for the World Cup?

The remaining three spots will go to a combination of teams from either Asia, Oceania, North and South America, as well as one more from Europe.

Intercontinental play-off: Asia v South America – Either the UAE or Australia will play Peru for one of the remaining spots.

Intercontinental play-off: Oceania v North America – After a 5-0 win over the Solomon Islands today, New Zealand will play Costa Rica in a one-off game in June with the winner reaching the World Cup.

European play-off: The last three of Europe’s 13 World Cup places were settled by the teams that narrowly missed qualifying directly, in a trio of mini four-team tournaments. Portugal and Poland already advanced after winning their respective semi-finals and finals, but one still remains.

The reason for this is that while Wales defeated Austria, they were due to play the winner of Scotland and Ukraine, which has been delayed due to the ongoing conflict in eastern Europe. Those two teams will now play in June, with the winner playing Wales a week later.

When does the World Cup start?

The tournament proper kicks off on the 21st of November at 9pm (AEDT). As is usually the case, most matches will be kicking off in the middle of the night for Australian audiences.

When is the World Cup final?

The World Cup final will take place December 19th at 2am AEDT.

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