Dates confirmed for FIFA Club World Cup UAE 2021™
Format and dates of FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ OFC preliminary competition confirmed
The Bureau of the FIFA Council and the Bureau for the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers have taken a series of decisions concerning upcoming competitions.
The dates for the FIFA Club World Cup UAE 2021 presented by Alibaba Cloud have been set from 3 to 12 February 2022. The draw, taking place on Monday, 29 November in Zurich, will decide the eight matches to be played in total between the representatives of each confederation and the host country, UAE.
The format, dates and draw procedures for the OFC preliminary competition for the FIFA World Cup 2022 have also been confirmed. Nine teams will participate, following the withdrawal of American Samoa and Samoa.
The OFC qualifiers will be played in a mini-tournament format featuring eight teams and consisting of a round-robin group stage, semi-finals and the final. A single qualification match will be played between the two lowest-ranked OFC member associations (those ranked eighth and ninth based on the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking) for the right to take part in the preliminary competition mini-tournament. All matches will take place in the central location of Qatar in March 2022. As the OFC has 0.5 slots for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, these qualifiers will determine the OFC representative that will play in the FIFA intercontinental play-off matches in June 2022.
Based on this format, the drawing of lots is required for the group stage of the mini-tournament to determine the paths of the eight participating teams by allocating them to two groups. The procedures for the draw
