It's looking like Ecuador will qualify from South America and Canada from CONCACAF as both nations have clinched at least intercontinental playoffs with matches remaining in March. It would be a statistical improbability for either of them to not directly qualify at this point.

 

It will be Canada's first World Cup appearance since their only other one in 1986. They made a real statement here as the best nation in CONCACAF right now by beating both the United States (2-0) and Mexico (2-1) at home and drawing (1-1) away at both.

Edited February 3, 20223 yr by DJHazey

The North American qualifiers are certainly interesting - the fact that the top 5 teams auto-qualify for the final group and the other 29 have to battle it out for three spots seems a little unfair. Take Suriname as an example - they won all the matches in their qualifying group except the one against Canada, who are now the best team in North America, and because of that they were eliminated in the first round. The USA and Mexico have also lost to Canada, but because they're in the 'top 5' they'll probably still qualify!

African Playoffs are set. Home-and-away ties March 24-26 and March 27-29:

 

Egypt* vs. Senegal* (aka Salah vs. Mane)

Cameroon vs. Algeria

Ghana vs. Nigeria*

Congo DR# vs. Morocco*

Mali# vs. Tunisia*

* = 2018 WC Participants: Egypt, Senegal, Nigeria, Morocco, Tunisia

# = Congo DR hasn't been to the WC since 1974, Mali has never been to a WC.

Egypt and Senegal are facing each other right now in the final of the AFCON. It will be interesting to see if the outcome of the match has a psychological effect on the World Cup play offs, you'd think that the losing team will have a lot more extra motivation to gain revenge on the AFCON winners next month.

The North American qualifiers are certainly interesting - the fact that the top 5 teams auto-qualify for the final group and the other 29 have to battle it out for three spots seems a little unfair. Take Suriname as an example - they won all the matches in their qualifying group except the one against Canada, who are now the best team in North America, and because of that they were eliminated in the first round. The USA and Mexico have also lost to Canada, but because they're in the 'top 5' they'll probably still qualify!

 

It was a fluke situation. Canada happened to be ranked lower before seeding for this. Suriname is by know means as strong as that showing. They lost to Canada 4-0 in that group and are like the equivalent of say Latvia or Estonia from Europe. If they were in this final round, the scores would be 10-0 more often than not. I do agree five auto-qualifiers is a bit much, the second round should have had all involved. I think the pandemic is what brought it about this time. They wanted the second round to not take as long as it would with more teams involved. They fell behind in qualifying schedule because of Covid. I don't think they will do it same for the next World Cup.

FIFA needs to move the European Playoff Path involving Russia, which currently has Russia hosting both their semifinal vs. Poland and a potential final vs. Sweden/Czech Republic if they win. All three countries are threatening to boycott a trip to Moscow.

Edited February 24, 20223 yr by DJHazey

Scotland's World Cup play-off uncertainty may become clearer on Friday after an emergency Uefa meeting to "take all necessary decisions" following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

 

Steve Clarke's side are scheduled to host Ukraine at Hampden on 24 March.

 

The Ukrainian top flight - which paused for its winter break on 12 December and was due to resume on Friday - will remain suspended.

 

Fifteen of the most recent 23-man Ukraine squad play in their homeland.

 

The government has declared a 30-day state of emergency and a statement from the Ukraine Premier League said that "due to the imposition of martial law, the championship of Ukraine has been suspended".

 

A statement from the Scottish FA said: "The Scottish FA is in ongoing dialogue with Uefa regarding the situation in Ukraine and we will continue to monitor developments."

 

World football's governing body Fifa is to meet on Thursday. Russia are due to play Poland in a World Cup play-off the same day as Scotland's tie with Ukraine.

Brazil manager Tite has told Brazilian channel SporTV that he will leave his role after the 2022 World Cup. The 60-year-old took the job in June 2016 when the Seleção were struggling under Dunga, who had failed to revitalise them after the 2014 World Cup. Brazil are unbeaten in 2022 World Cup qualifying and won the Copa América under Tite in 2019.

The Polish FA has said that they will not play their qualifier in Moscow next month.

Poland will boycott their World Cup play-off against Russia because of the invasion of Ukraine, with captain Robert Lewandowski saying "we can't pretend that nothing is happening".

 

Polish football association president Cezary Kulesza has said the team "does not intend" to play the game.

Czech Republic have joined Sweden and Poland in saying they will boycott any game against Russia in football's World Cup play-offs as sport continues to react to the invasion of Ukraine.

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Football's world governing body Fifa is set to suspend Russia until further notice as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recommends that Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials are banned from participating in any organised international competitions.

 

The suspension would mean Russia's exclusion from the men's World Cup qualification play-offs in March.

The absolute right move. I feel for the players as it is not their fault, but I'm hopeful this will step up the internal pressure on Putin. Kind of mad FIFA and the IOC did not reach this conclusion a few days earlier. I understand both Presidents are awash with Russian influence, but when other football associations and crucially the sponsors assert pressure, that should be the catalyst.

The only decision they really could make - glad they still did so.

Former Liverpool defender Rigobert Song is set to be named Cameroon head coach on the orders of the country's president.

 

The 45-year-old will replace Toni Conceicao, who led the national team to a third-placed finish at January's Africa Cup of Nations.

 

Song is the country's most capped player, making 137 appearances for the Indomitable Lions.

I wonder how they will handle the Sweden, Czech Republic, Poland section now. I would have them all play each once as a round robin table. Winner on points/goal differential advances.

Maybe Poland will have a bye to the play-off final perhaps.

Yeah I'm sure that's already been confirmed Poland getting a bye to play the winner of Sweden vs Czechia.

That doesn't seem fair to Sweden and Czech Republic, that they have to win two games and Poland only has to win one.

That's too bad. I think they can accept that in such extreme circumstances.