FIFA World Cup 2022 with Qatar being the first Middle Eastern country to host the prestigious event. Because of that, the 22nd edition of the football championship has shift to a winter schedule instead of June, as means to avoid the scorching, Arabian summer heat, marking the first-ever winter World Cup.
France will be aiming to defend its 2018 title, while the Argentinian legend Lionel Messi reaches for his final phase at lifting the World Cup, before bidding adieu to the tournament.
When will the FIFA World Cup 2022 Qatar Start?
The opening game of the 2022 FIFA World Cup start on Sunday, 20th November 2022, at 9:30pm IST.
The host nation Qatar will play against Ecuador at the Al Bayt Stadium, Al Khor, with an audience of 60,000 people.
The tournament is schedule to end on 20th December 2022.
Schedule of FIFA World Cup 2022
32 teams will compete over a period of 29 days, across 64 matches.
Teams are split into eight groups of four, from which only the top two progress into the round of 16 aka the knockout stage.
The winner will ultimately be decide on 20th December 2022, and each team only gets one shot at proving their worth, no second legs, as seen with European tournaments such as the UEFA Champions League.
Groups for the 2022 FIFA World Cup
- GROUP A: Qatar (host), Ecuador, Senegal, Netherlands
- GROUP B: England, Iran, United States, Wales
- GROUP C: Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Poland
- GROUP D: France, Denmark, Tunisia, Australia
- GROUP E: Spain, Germany, Japan, Costa Rica
- GROUP F: Belgium, Canada, Morocco, Croatia
- GROUP G: Brazil, Serbia, Switzerland, Cameroon
- GROUP H: Portugal, Ghana, Uruguay, Korea Republic
The knockout rounds kick off on 3rd December 2022, follow by the quarter-finals on 9th December 2022, and the semi-finals on 13th December 2022.
How to watch FIFA World Cup 2022?
In India
You can catch up on all the World Cup action in India, in both standard televised format and via online streaming.
The tournament will be broadcast on the paid DTH (direct-to-home) TV network Sports18 more specifically, its subsequent Sports18 and Sports 18 HD channels.
The channels are available across Tata Play, Airtel DTH, Jio TV+, Sun Direct, Dish TV, and D2H.
Major televised events as such are also gradually migrating toward online streaming. In India, the FIFA World Cup 2022 will be live-stream on the JioCinema app and website.
The games will be stream free of cost, with commentary available in English, Hindi, Malayalam, Bengali, and Tamil.
In US
In the US, the Peacock app is the go-to place to stream the first 12 FIFA World Cup 2022 matches for free.
After that, starting 24th November 2022, you’ll have to upgrade to Peacock Premium to catch the remaining 52 games of the tournament.
The livestreams will be in Spanish, while the Premium subscription costs $5.
The English-language broadcasting rights are held by Fox, with the matches airing on Fox and FS1 channels.
Spanish-language telecasts will be on the NBC-owned Telemundo.
In Canada
As in Canada, all World Cup matches will be stream live on TSN (The Sports Network), the TSN.ca website, and the TSN app.
In Australia
Qualified for a fifth straight World Cup, Australian fans can catch the action via the SBS service, SBS and SBS VICELAND, the latter is a secondary channel, helpful for when two games are being held at the same time.
You could also stream the games for free through the SBS On Demand website.
In UK
In the UK, FIFA World Cup 2022 broadcast will be spread out across BBC and ITV services, free of cost.
Fixtures will also be available to stream online via BBC iPlayer and ITVX.
