FIFA World Cup 2022

Poland will not play their World Cup play-off against Russia next month because of the invasion of Ukraine, the president of Poland’s Football Association, Cezary Kulesza, said on Saturday, a decision backed up by the team’s players, including their star forward,   Robert Lewandowski . Kulesza said the association was in talks with its Swedish and Czech counterparts regarding the matches. The winners of the match between Sweden and the Czech Republic were supposed to play the victors of the Russia v Poland game to determine who would qualify for the World Cup later this year. “No more words, time to act!” Kulesza tweeted. “Due to the escalation of the aggression of the Russian Federation towards Ukraine the Polish national team does not intend to play the play-off match against Russia. “This is the only right decision. We are in talks with Swedish and Czech association to bring forward a joint statement to Fifa. Bayern Munich’s Lewandowski quickly endorsed Kulesza’s ...

Including the hosts, 15 teams have qualified for the 32-team World Cup so far: Qatar Argentina Belgium Brazil Croatia Denmark England France Germany Iran The Netherlands Serbia South Korea Spain Switzerland The draw for the World Cup will take place in Qatar’s capital Doha on April 1. This is how the qualifying scenario looks across the world: Africa Five teams – winners of the two-legged qualifiers in March – will represent Africa at Qatar 2022. Fixtures Egypt v Senegal Cameroon v Algeria Nigeria v Ghana DR Congo v Morocco Mali v Tunisia Asia Five or six teams, depending on other qualifiers, will represent Asia. According to FIFA, the top two teams in each group will qualify with the third-placed teams in each section, meeting in a single game for the right to go into an intercontinental playoff for a place at the World Cup. Europe In addition to the 10 who have already qualified, there are three more slots up for grabs for European sides. Qualified for play-offs: Austria, Czech Repub...