The raffle:
Just as this World Cup is special and extraordinary, so will the raffle to be held today in Doha, Qatar.
How special?
32 teams will participate in the World Cup that will open in November, but today (Friday, 19:00) in the lottery will take part 37 teams.
How did it happen?
The plague of the corona and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict led to the postponement of many games, and to the fact that only on June 14 and after all the continental and intercontinental playoffs have been completed, will the picture of the eight houses of the 2022 World Cup be completed.
Due to the rejection in the fourth tier, there will today be balls marked with, for example, "Peru / Australia / UAE" or "Ukraine / Scotland / Wales", although in practice only one of each such ball will be in the World Cup.
These teams will be automatically placed in the fourth tier, because FIFA has decided to place these balls according to the weakest team that can come out of them - in this case Scotland and the United Arab Emirates.
If Peru and Ukraine get the ticket, they will be placed in the fourth tier even though in terms of rating points they are more equal.
In retrospect, in the face of this rush, it may have gone well for the organizers who decided to postpone the World Cup from the summer to the end of the year.
Host:
For the first time in history hosts the World Cup a team that has never participated in it before, Qatar.
Of necessity the team, ranked 65th in the world, will of course be head of household.
Due to that it will not be able to meet the other seven teams that will make up the heads of houses - Brazil, Argentina, England, Belgium, Spain, Portugal and world champions France - and will be the team that everyone will want to get in the early stages.
The rules:
The only restriction that exists in the house stage lottery is geographical.
Apart from Europe, which will send 13 teams to the World Cup and therefore there is no bar to two Europeans in the same house, two teams from the same continent, for example Argentina and Uruguay or Senegal and Cameroon, cannot meet in the early house.
Due to that Germany, which is in the second tier, can play at home early both with Argentina or Brazil and also with England or world champion France.
Good or bad lottery:
Is there such a thing at all?
So of course there is a possibility of falling on a hard house, the so-called "death house" (for example, Brazil, Germany, Poland, Ghana) or on a much lighter house (Qatar, USA, Tunisia, Ecuador), but there are other variables that affect quality The lottery.The crosses, i.e. who you meet in the knockout stages, are no less important than the early house.
Qatar World Cup approaching, Photo: AP
In this World Cup, the number of the house itself is also important.
Due to the tight schedule (the tournament will be shorter than in Russia 2018 by four days) the teams drawn in the first houses will have more rest days than those drawn in the last houses. For example, the team that finishes first in house 7 will have to play seven games in 25 days to win the title. Rest between the home stage and the knockout stage, in contrast, a team that finishes second in house A will need 28 days and will receive four days of rest between the stages.
The extra number:
There is one very interesting statistic about the house draw - since the number of teams increased to 32 (1998) and the number of houses to eight, half of the world champions (3 out of 6) came out of house number 3: France in 2018 and 1998 and Brazil in 2002.
A lot of color awaits the draw teams in Doha tonight, Photo: EPA
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