Damascus-SANA
On the eve of the start of the 22nd edition of the Qatar World Cup 2022, which was considered the most expensive among the World Cup finals in history, the eyes of football fans are directed to the “Al-Bayt” stadium, which will host the opening match between the Qatari national teams and their Ecuadorian counterpart.
On the technical side, the tournament matches with its 32 teams distributed into 8 groups will witness strong confrontations, as the participating teams include some of the best players in the world, such as Argentine Lionel Messi, Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo, Polish Robert Lewandowski and many other world football stars, while injuries missed great stars such as Ingolo. Kante and Paul Pogba for the national team
French striker Diogo Gota and Pedro Neto for the Portuguese national team, Reece James for the England national team, and Timo Werner and Marco Reus for the German national team.
Among the important names that will also be absent from the World Cup are Argentine Giovanni Lo Celso, the Brazilians Artur Melo and Diego Carlos, in addition to the Mexican national team striker Jesus Manuel, the Dutchman Georginho Wijnaldum and the Senegalese Sadio Mane.
Perhaps the most important characteristic of the current tournament, which is considered the most expensive ever, at a cost that exceeded the $200 billion threshold, according to estimates by a group of experts, is the use of semi-automatic technology to determine offside positions to support referees and “mouse” video referees through the use of 12 cameras installed under the ceiling of the stadium in order to track movement ball, plus up to 29 data points running at 50
Once per second is allocated to each player on the floor of the field.
Arbitration in the 2022 World Cup will not be limited to men, as the lists of referees chosen to manage the matches witnessed a historic event by appointing 3 women referees and 3 female assistants.
The first group included the hosting teams Qatar, Ecuador, Senegal and the Netherlands, while the second group included the teams of England, Iran, the United States and Wales, and the third group included Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Poland, while the fourth group included France, Australia, Denmark and Tunisia.
And the fifth group is Spain, Costa Rica, Germany and Japan, and the sixth group is Belgium, Canada, Morocco and Croatia, and the seventh group is Brazil, Serbia, Switzerland and Cameroon, and the eighth group is Portugal, Ghana, Uruguay and South Korea.
This version of the World Cup will be the last to be held with the participation of 32 teams, after FIFA decided to increase the number of teams participating in the tournament to 48 teams, starting from the 2026 edition, which will be hosted by Canada, the United States and Mexico.
The French national team was crowned the 2018 World Cup, which was held in Russia, after its great victory in the final match against Croatia, with four goals to two.
Nidal Al Suwaidani
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