The 2022 Qatar World Cup begins to count down, and the opening match between host Qatar and Ecuador will be kicked off at 0:00 on November 21. The reason why football matches have become the world's number one sport with the largest number of fans, the widest coverage, the highes

2022Qatar World Cup begins to count down, and the opening match between host Qatar and Ecuador will start at 0:00 on November 21.

The reason why football matches have become the world's number one sport with the largest number of fans, the widest coverage, the highest participation and the strongest attraction in the world is to use a saying that everyone often says: "Football is round, everything is possible." After all, there were no shortage of upsets and surprises in the World Cup in the past. There are countless examples of defending champions, favorites in the championship and the first-class seed teams falling in the knockout round, the quarterfinals, and the semi-finals.

As we all know, the Qatar World Cup is the last World Cup with 32 teams participating in the World Cup. Starting from the next 2026 US Canada-Mexico World Cup, FIFA will expand the number of teams participating in the final stage to 48, the number of matches will increase, and the schedule will exceed one month. The impact of the "World Cup economy" brought about will become greater and greater, and the degree of attention will be higher and higher. The

2026 World Cup system will also undergo considerable changes, which will add some uncertainty to the strong teams in Europe and the United States. Teams in Asia, Africa, Central and North America and Caribbean , and Oceania will launch new challenges to strong European and American enemies. To a certain extent, some European and American teams that have been identified as the first level by FIFA may frequently fall in the group stage and miss the knockout stage, not to mention winning the championship and winning the cup.

Everyone knows that the number of teams participating in the World Cup and the competition system have undergone several changes. The first expansion of the 1982 World Cup, the participating teams increased from 16 to 24. At that time, 24 teams were divided into 6 groups. After the top 2 teams qualified, 12 teams were divided into 4 groups. The first place in each group formed the semi-finals, and the knockout round was held to determine the championship.

The 24 teams in the 1986 World Cup were divided into 6 groups at that time. The top 2 teams in each group and the 4 best-achieved third teams formed the top 16 to play the knockout round and decide the championship. This competition system was used until 1994 World Cup ended.

Since the 1998 World Cup, FIFA has expanded the participating teams to 32. Compared with the 1994 World Cup and previous World Cup rules, the competition system has also changed.

Take the 1994 World Cup as an example. The 24 teams are divided into 6 groups and 6 seed teams. The rules of the game are the top 2 teams in the group, and 4 of the 6 groups with the best results are the third team in the group to advance to the top 16. Therefore, the knockout stage of the 1994 World Cup included A3 United States, D3 Bulgaria, E3 Ireland, F3 Belgium . These 4 teams advanced to the knockout round as the third place in the group.

Among them, the United States team in Group A is both the host and the seed team, Belgium is the seed team in Group F, the team that won the championship was Brazil, the runner-up was Italy, and among the top four teams in the 1994 World Cup, Sweden is the third place, and the fourth place is Bulgaria. These two teams are not the first seed team determined by FIFA before the game.

Take the 2022 World Cup as an example. 32 teams advanced to the final circle, divided into 8 groups, with 8 seed teams. According to the rules, the top 2 teams in group points will be qualified to advance to the top 16 knockout round.

6 groups 32 participating teams (the first team in each group is the first seed team):

A group is Qatar, Ecuador, Senegal , the Netherlands;

B group is England, Iran , the United States, Wales;

C group is Argentina , Saudi , Mexico , Polish ;

C group is Argentina , Saudi , Mexico , Polish ;

D group is France, Australia, Denmark, Tunisia ;

E group is Spain, Costa Rica , Germany, Japan;

F group is Belgium, Canada, Morocco , Croatia ;

G group is Brazil, Serbia , Switzerland , Cameroon ;

H group is Portugal, Ghana, Uruguay , and South Korea.

2022 World Cup group stage has 3 rounds and 48 games, starting from November 21st to ending on December 3rd, and the quarter-finals 's match situation is:

(1) A1 VS B2 (2) C1 VS D2 (3) D1 VS C2 (4) B1 VS A2 (5) E1 VS F2 (6) G1 VS H2 (7) F1 VS E2 (8) H1 VS G2.

, which represents Asia, Qatar team currently ranks 50th in the world, and its opponents in the same group Ecuador, Senegal and the Netherlands are ranked 44th, 18th and 8th respectively. As the host, whether they can qualify from Group A and add color to Asian football is quite exciting. At the same time, several first-tier seed teams will fail in the group stage and be eliminated, which is also a major focus.

In fact, from the expansion of the World Cup in 1998 to 32 teams, to 018 Russia World Cup , among which only the 8 first-tier seed teams identified before the game were qualified and advanced to the top 16, while the other five World Cups had the first-tier seed teams eliminated in the group stage.

In the World Cup group stage, the first seed teams that were eliminated and failed to qualify include: Spain in the 1998 World Cup Group D; France and Argentina in the 2002 World Cup Group A champions France and Argentina in the F Group F; South Africa and Italy in the 2010 World Cup Group A host; Spain in the 2014 World Cup Group B; Germany and Poland in the H Group H.

This shows how cruel the competition for qualifying in the group stage is.

In fact, it is reported that when FIFA decided to expand the 2026 World Cup to 48 teams, the competition system was that 48 teams were divided into 16 groups, each group had 3 teams. After each group eliminated one team, the knockout match was held.

Some media said that FIFA is considering changing the rules of the 2026 World Cup match, and plans to divide 48 teams into 12 groups, each group still maintains the current size of 4 teams. The reason is that if there are only 3 teams in each group, it is very easy to cause "tricks". Some teams may "deliberately" lose in the last round of the group stage for their own interests, resulting in unfair problems. Therefore, FIFA plans to scale 4 teams in each group. If so, the 2026 World Cup match plan will likely be adjusted to 12 groups and 4 best-achieved second teams to qualify and advance to the top 16.

26 World Cup has 3 host teams, namely the United States, Canada and Mexico, with the world rankings of 16, 41 and 13 respectively. The three teams in the United States, Canada and Mexico naturally have the first three seed seats according to the rules, which also means that there are only 9 seed team places left.

Currently, the top 9 teams in the world include Brazil, Belgium, Argentina, France, England, Spain, the Netherlands and Portugal, while the former world champion Germany only ranks 11th. It can be expected that by the 2026 World Cup football match, 12 top teams in the group and 4 best second-place teams will advance to the top 16 knockout round, and the competition for qualifying in the group stage will be even more cruel, and the proportion of first-class seed teams being eliminated in the group stage may increase significantly.