September 9 – Concacaf have shifted their World Cup Qatar 2022 qualifiers back from the October and November international match windows into 2021, following regional uncertainty around whether the spread of the coronavirus will make it possible to get games played.
September 2 – Just over two weeks before he addresses the entire FIFA membership on-line at its annual congress and conscious of the adverse global publicity surrounding those undocumented meetings with the departing Swiss attorney general, Gianni Infantino has been quick to go on a charm offensive by praising the hosts of next year’s World Cup for passing new laws designed to improve workers’ rights.
August 20 – Concacaf teams learned their pathway to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar after the preliminary draw paired 2026 tournament hosts Canada in Group B with Suriname, Bermuda, Cayman Islands and Aruba.
August 13 – Concacaf will hold the draw for its reformatted 2022 World Cup qualifiers next Wednesday (August 19), and has announced the seeded pots for the first round group stages that will see 30 teams in action.
By Andrew Warshaw
July 16 – Fans watching the first ever winter World Cup in Qatar will be treated to four games a day, organisers have confirmed as they announced the tournament in November and December 2022, will kick off at the Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor.
July 7 – Qatar’s World Cup organisers are set to reduce their workforce as the emirate introduces austerity measures amid the coronavirus crisis, according to reports.
June 26 – FIFA may have canned the its quadrennial Confederations Cup, the curtain-raiser and test bed held the year before in the World Cup by the host nation, but Qatar will still have the opportunity to give its new facilities a rigorous workout in 2021 with the announcement of a new pan-Arab tournament.
June 26 – About 1,100 construction workers on 2022 World Cup projects have tested positive for Covid-19 with one worker, a 51-year old Filipino electrical engineer, having died of the virus on June 11.
June 17 – Qatar organisers have now officially opened the third tournament-ready venue for the 2022 World Cup, and the largest to be completed so far.
June 11 – Welfare conditions in Qatar have come under renewed scrutiny after an Amnesty International investigation revealed that World Cup labourers at the Al Bayt stadium went unpaid for months. Local organisers have said the Qatari construction company involved has been banned from event projects as a consequence.
June 5 – The Qatar 2022 organisers have announced the Education City Stadium in Doha as the third World Cup stadium to be completed.
By Andrew Warshaw
May 21 – The head of Qatar’s 2022 World Cup organising committee says the Saudi-led regional blockade of his country has been a “blessing in disguise” and has also vowed to ensure the tournament remains affordable to visitors despite the impact of Covid-19.
April 24 – Kenya is on the verge of being banned from World Cup qualifiers saying they do not have the funds to meet today’s deadline to pay former coach Adel Amrouche (pictured).
February 25 – Qatar will open three more of its World Cup 2022 stadiums this year, adding to the two already open. That will leave three more for completion, including the Lusail Stadium that will host the opening game and final.
January 22 – The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has carried out the draw for African 2022 World Cup qualifiers but at the same time announced that matches will now not start for another nine months. The big news from the draw itself is that either Cameroon or Ivory Coast will not qualify for the Qatar World Cup after the teams were paired together.