Qatar World Cup organizers dispute Denmark kit manufacturer's claims of human rights violations

FIFA confirmed the group stage venue and kick-off times on 1 April 2022, following the draw. On 11 August, it was confirmed that Qatar vs Ecuador had been brought forward one day, now becoming the tournament's opening match, while Senegal vs Netherlands, which would have opened the tournament under the original schedule, had been reallocated to the freed-up timeslot. Stadium 974, formerly known as Ras Abu Aboud, is the seventh FIFA World Cup 2022 venue to be completed by the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy .

In the 2015 FIFA corruption case, Swiss officials, operating under information from the United States Department of Justice, arrested many senior FIFA officials in Zurich, Switzerland. The arrests continued in the United States, where several FIFA officers were arrested, and FIFA buildings were raided. The arrests were made on the information of at least a $150 million corruption and bribery scandal. The European Union's Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy in the World 2021 noted Qatar's labour law reforms that had incorporated non-discriminatory minimum wage systems and removal of the Kafala system in 2021.

Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Mauritania, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt, in a letter, asked FIFA to replace Qatar as แข่งขันบอลโลก Host, calling the country as a "base of terrorism". In October 2017, Lieutenant General Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, deputy head of Dubai Police and General Security, wrote about the crisis on Twitter in Arabic; saying "If the World Cup leaves Qatar, Qatar's crisis will be over … because the crisis is created to get away from it". According to media reports, the message appeared to imply that the Saudi-led blockade of Qatar was only enacted due to Qatar hosting the world's biggest football event. In reaction to media coverage of his tweet, Dhahi Khalfan tweeted; "I said Qatar is faking a crisis and claims it's besieged so it could get away from the burdens of building expensive sports facilities for the World Cup". UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said Dhahi Khalfan had been misunderstood in media coverage.

On 9 December 2019, the World Anti-Doping Agency handed Russia a four-year ban from all major sporting events, after RUSADA was found non-compliant for handing over manipulated lab data to investigators. The Russian national team were still permitted to enter qualification, as the ban only applied to the final tournament to decide the world champions. A team representing Russia, which uses the Russian flag and anthem, could not participate under the WADA decision whilst the ban is active.

Teams from the same confederation could not be drawn into the same group except for UEFA teams, for which there was at least one and no more than two per group. This principle also applied to the placeholder teams, with constraints applying based on the confederation of both potential winners of each play-off tie. The draw started with pot 1 and ended with pot 4, with each team selected then allocated into the first available group alphabetically.

However, despite the glut of talent on show, spare a thought for those teams who failed to qualify, and in particular, the stars who will miss out on all the fun and games at the tournament. Are also struggling but a strong run of results for Iran in the international break suggests it could be all to play for. The season will start a week earlier than normal on August , with 16 matchdays taking place up to the weekend of November 12/13, before the tournament kicks off on November 20. England will now feature on the second day with their Group B match against Iran scheduled to take place just eight days after the Premier League shuts down on Monday November 21 with a 1pm UK time kick-off. The tournament was originally set to begin a day later with Senegal's game against the Netherlands at Al Thumama Stadium but Qatar's match was moved forward in August to allow them to open their home tournament.