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Mapped: The 32 Teams Playing in the 2022 FIFA World Cup

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Mapped: The 32 Teams Playing in the 2022 FIFA World Cup

The FIFA World Cup is one of the most-watched sporting events in the world—in 2018, nearly 3.6 billion people tuned in to watch the tournament.

Starting on November 20th, that excitement will return as 32 teams from around the world will compete in the 22nd FIFA World Cup Championship in Qatar.

This graphic by Athul Alexander shows the teams that will be playing against one another this year, and their latest pre-tournament FIFA rankings.

The Ranks of the 32 Qualifying Teams

The FIFA World Ranking is used to compare the 211 teams that are part of the FIFA association. They attempt to measure the progression and current ability of the each national football team.

The ranking is determined using a number of different metrics, including the number of games a team has won and how “important” those results were, such as in major tournaments or against strong opponents.

But high-ranking teams don’t qualify for the World Cup directly. Instead, ranks are used for seeding in regional qualifying tournaments, as each region (also known as a “confederation”) has a select number of slots.

This means that every World Cup, many lower-ranked teams end up qualifying for the event over higher-ranked teams. For 2022, the biggest example of this is Italy’s national team (ranked #6), which failed to qualify.

Here’s a look at the World Ranking of the 32 qualifying teams, as of Oct 6, 2022:

CountryFIFA RankTotal Points
🇧🇷 Brazil11841.30
🇧🇪 Belgium21816.71
🇦🇷 Argentina31773.88
🇫🇷 France41759.78
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England51728.47
🇪🇸 Spain71715.22
🇳🇱 Netherlands81694.51
🇵🇹 Portugal91676.56
🇩🇰 Denmark101666.57
🇩🇪 Germany111650.21
🇭🇷 Croatia121645.64
🇲🇽 Mexico131644.89
🇺🇾 Uruguay141638.71
🇨🇭 Switzerland151635.92
🇺🇸 USA161627.48
🇸🇳 Senegal181584.38
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Wales191569.82
🇮🇷 IR Iran201564.61
🇷🇸 Serbia211563.62
🇲🇦 Morocco221563.50
🇯🇵 Japan241559.54
🇵🇱 Poland261548.59
🇰🇷 Korea Republic281530.30
🇹🇳 Tunisia301507.54
🇨🇷 Costa Rica311503.59
🇦🇺 Australia381488.72
🇨🇦 Canada411475.00
🇨🇲 Cameroon431471.44
🇪🇨 Ecuador441464.39
🇶🇦 Qatar501439.89
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia511437.78
🇬🇭 Ghana611393.00

The highest-ranked team is Brazil with 1841.30 points. The South American team holds the record for most World Cup wins with five total—in 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, and 2002.

Next on the ranking is Belgium, with 1816.71 points. Belgium has yet to win the World Cup, however, in 2018 they made it to the semi-finals and ended up getting third place.

The Eight Groups for 2022

Each team’s ranking upon qualifying for the FIFA World Cup tournament is also used for seeding purposes to establish the groups.

The association first organizes the teams into four pots, based on their FIFA Ranking. Then, groups are established by randomly drawing teams from each pot.

Here’s a look at the eight different groups for 2022:

GroupCountry (Top Rank)Country (Top Middle Rank)Country (Bottom Middle Rank)Country (Bottom Rank)
ANetherlandsSenegalEcuadorQatar
BEnglandU.S.WalesIran
CArgentiaMexicoPolandSaudi Arabia
DFranceDenmarkTunisiaAustralia
ESpainGermanyJapanCosta Rica
FBelgiumCroatiaMoroccoCanada
GBrazilSwitzerlandSerbiaCameroon
HPortugalUruguaySouth KoreaGhana

The groups can’t have more than two teams from the same region, with the exception of Europe, which has double the amount of slots.

These groups will play each other in the first stage of the tournament, after which the top two teams from each group will move on to the bracket round.

Past FIFA World Cup Winners

Since 1930, the FIFA World Cup has been hosted every four years, apart from 1942 and 1946, when it was canceled during WWII.

Here’s a look at past cup winners, as well as the runner-ups, since 1930:

YearWinning TeamScoreRunners-up
1930Uruguay4–2Argentina
1934Italy2–1Czechoslovakia
1938Italy4–2Hungary
1950Uruguay2–1Brazil
1954West Germany3–2Hungary
1958Brazil5–2Sweden
1962Brazil3–1Czechoslovakia
1966England4–2West Germany
1970Brazil4–1Italy
1974West Germany2–1Netherlands
1978Argentina3–1Netherlands
1982Italy3–1West Germany
1986Argentina3–2West Germany
1990West Germany1–0Argentina
1994Brazil0–0 (a.e.t.)
(3–2 pen.)
Italy
1998France3–0Brazil
2002Brazil2–0Germany
2006Italy1–1 (a.e.t.)
(5–3 pen.)
France
2010Spain1–0 (a.e.t.)Netherlands
2014Germany1–0 (a.e.t.)Argentina
2018France4–2Croatia

*a.e.t mean “won after extra time,” pen. means “won by penalty kicks”

What’s expected for this year? While it’s technically anyone’s game, Brazil has a 15/4 chance of winning this year’s cup, according to bet365.

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This article was published as a part of Visual Capitalist's Creator Program, which features data-driven visuals from some of our favorite Creators around the world.

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Misc

Ranked: The World’s Largest Stadiums

The U.S. is known for its massive arenas, but in a top 10 ranking of the world’s largest stadiums, two other countries take the lead.

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Ranking The World’s Largest Stadiums

From football games to live concerts, stadiums serve as a gathering place for some of life’s most exciting moments.

While some stadiums are famous for their history, others are truly massive in size, capable of seating over 100,000 people at once. In this graphic, we’ve ranked the 10 largest stadiums in the world by seating capacity, with Madison Square Garden included as a reference point.

Data and Highlights

As shown in the graphic above, the world’s largest stadium belongs to India. Named after the country’s Prime Minister, the Narendra Modi Stadium was designed to host cricket games.

See below for the full list in tabular format.

RankStadiumCountryCityCapacity
1Narendra Modi Stadium🇮🇳 IndiaAhmedabad132,000
2Rungrado 1st of May Stadium🇰🇵 North KoreaPyongyang114,000
3Michigan Stadium🇺🇸 USAnn Arbor, MI107,601
4Beaver Stadium🇺🇸 USState College, PA106,572
5Ohio Stadium🇺🇸 USColumbus, OH102,780
6Kyle Field🇺🇸 USCollege Station, TX102,733
7Neyland Stadium🇺🇸 USKnoxville, TN102,455
8Tiger Stadium🇺🇸 USBaton Rouge, LA102,321
9Darrell K Royal - Texas Memorial Stadium🇺🇸 USAustin, TX100,119
10Bryant-Denny Stadium🇺🇸 USTuscaloosa, AL100,077

The number two spot is held by Rungrado 1st of May Stadium, which is surprisingly located in North Korea. It was completed in 1989 with the purpose of hosting the 13th World Festival of Youth and Students, and is now used to host various government events.

It’s interesting to note that this arena initially had a higher capacity of 150,000 people, but was reduced to 114,000 after renovations in 2014.

Looking further down the list, the third to tenth largest stadiums belong to the United States. All of these arenas are primarily used for college football, serving as the home field for their respective university team.

A shocking fact is that these arenas are significantly larger than NFL stadiums. For example, the largest NFL stadium is MetLife Stadium, which has a seating capacity of 82,500.

The Runner-Ups

While just three countries are represented in the top 10 list, there is plenty of geographical diversity once we look a little further down. Shown below are the 11th to 14th largest stadiums in the world.

largest stadiums 11 to 14

Camp Nou and FNB Stadium are two historic soccer stadiums which have both hosted a FIFA World Cup tournament. Camp Nou is owned by FC Barcelona, the world’s third most valuable soccer club.

New Administrative Capital Stadium is expected to replace the Cairo International Stadium as Egypt’s new national arena, and could be used to host the Olympics or a FIFA World Cup in the future if called upon.

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