Doha, March 31 (QNA) - The attention of athletes and football fans in the world will turn on Friday to the Qatari capital, Doha, to closely monitor the results of the Final Draw ceremony for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, the first historic tournament hosted by the State, which will kick off on Monday, Nov. 21, on Al Bayt Stadium and will conclude on Sunday Dec. 18 at Lusail Stadium.

The draw will be held at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center (DECC), at the presence of a number of dignitaries invited to attend this unique event in the region, in addition to the presence of FIFA officials headed by Gianni Infantino and a large number of invitees from the different six continents.

The Qatari sports community is anticipating for the first time the participation of the Qatari national team in this global event. The features of the group stage of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 will be clear tomorrow, as the draw will take place in the presence of more than 2,000 guests who will attend the global event, which will be followed up by fans around the globe to learn about the confrontations that will take place in the tournament, the championship of all Arabs that is organized by the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy (SC), the local organizing committee for this exceptional and historical event that turned the worlds attention towards the Middle East in anticipation of this exceptional event of a special nature in all its details, even the stadiums on which the matches will take place, which its design simulates the authentic Qatari heritage and culture.

Representatives of the qualified teams for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 will live in moments of anticipation, to know the roadmap for the World Cup from its start at Al Bayt Stadium to its end at Lusail Stadium.

The teams that have qualified for the World Cup so far are: Qatar (host), France (the defending champion), Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Croatia, Spain, Serbia, England, Switzerland, Netherlands, Portugal, Poland (for Europe), and Brazil (the record holder of football world cup), Argentina, Ecuador, Uruguay (for South America), Iran, South Korea, Japan, Saudi Arabia (for Asia), Canada, USA and Mexico (for North, Central America and the Caribbean), Ghana, Senegal , Morocco, Tunisia, and Cameroon (for the African continent).

Thus, fans and the participating teams will know their path towards the title, as it will be clear to 29 of the 32 teams participating in the tournament, the groups in which they will compete, and their path to the final of the tournament.

The procedures approved by the Organising Committee for FIFA Competitions outline that the 28 already qualified teams to World Cup Qatar 2022 will be allocated according to sporting principles to pots 1 to 4 based on the FIFA World Ranking that will be released Thursday following the conclusion of the international match window.

As hosts, Qatar will take position A1 from Pot 1, where they will be joined by the seven highest-ranked qualified teams from the FIFA Ranking.

The countries occupying positions 8-15 in the ranking of the qualified teams will be allocated to Pot 2, while the 16th-23rd best-ranked qualifiers will be placed in Pot 3. Finally, Pot 4 will include the qualified teams in positions 24 to 28, plus three placeholders representing the two winners of the intercontinental play-offs and the remaining UEFA play-off winner.

The intercontinental play-offs will be contested on 13-14 June in Qatar, with the AFC representative facing the CONMEBOL representative and the Concacaf representative taking on the OFC representative, per the draw held on Nov. 26, 2021.

The final team to qualify through the UEFA play-offs will also be determined in the May-June international window, as per the decision taken by the Bureau of the FIFA Organising Committee on March 8.

The draw will start with Pot 1 and end with Pot 4. Each pot will be completely emptied before moving on to the subsequent one. As per the standard draw procedure, a ball from a team pot will be drawn, followed by a ball from one of the group pots, thus determining the position in which the team will play. Teams from the same confederation will be kept apart in each of the eight groups with the exception of UEFA, which is represented by 13 teams. Five out of the eight groups will therefore have two European teams.

The FIFA World Cup 2022 will be held in Qatar. Eight stadiums will host the tournament, the first edition in the Arab region. The nature of close distances in Qatar will offer fans a unique opportunity of attending more than one match per day during the early stages of the tournament.

The first sales phase for FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 tickets matches has witnessed an unprecedented turnout.

The eight stadiums hosting the tournament's matches are located near Doha downtown. The maximum travelling distance between two host venues takes around one-hour journey, ensuring that fans, players and officials are always at the heart of the 28-day event, starting with the opening match at Al Bayt Stadium on Nov. 21. (QNA)