Full focus of the football world will be on Asia and Oceania in the coming years when soccer fans will have euphoric occasions in ensuing three years with the FIFA approval for different countries of the region as hosts of different competitions including the Qatar World Cup 2022.
Not only the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar, Asia will welcome next year (2021) the Olympic football tournament in Tokyo, the FIFA Women’s U-17 World Cup in India and the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Indonesia, the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in 2023 and also the FIFA Club World Cup in the People’s Republic of China in near future.
The jubilation will start from mid 2021 with the Tokyo Olympic Football, to be followed by the FIFA supported Pan-Arab tournament in December in Qatar as part of preparations for the FIFA World Cup Qatar in 2022. The Tokyo Olympic was deferred from 2020 to 2021 due to the global spread of Covid-19 pandemic.
Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, President of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), also reflected on the fact that Asia will now be the focus of football world in the coming years. He said, “Asia can look forward to hosting not only the FIFA World Cup in Qatar in 2022, but the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in 2023 and the FIFA Club World Cup in the People’s Republic of China in the near future, apart from age group FIFA World Cups (Women’s U-17 in India, U-20 in Indonesia).”
Meanwhile, the FIFA has confirmed the match schedules, the kick off and the final match stadium of Qatar World Cup 2022.
The Al Bayt Stadium, a 60,000-capacity arena that takes its name and shape from the traditional tents used by nomadic people in the Gulf region, will be the stage for hosts Qatar to kick off the tournament on November 21, 2022 at 13:00 (local time).
AFC sources say the local kick-off time for group matches have been set for 13:00, 16:00, 19:00 and 22:00, with the simultaneous kick-offs for the last round of group games and the knockout-stage timings being 18:00 and 22:00.
The final match will kick off at 18:00 on December 18 at Lusail Stadium in front of an 80,000 crowd following the play-off for third place on December 17.
