How many teams are in the FIFA World Cup?

As a passionate football fan and gamer, I‘m constantly researching and analyzing details around the world‘s most watched sporting event – the FIFA World Cup. This year‘s edition is underway in Qatar with 32 qualified national teams vying to be crowned world champion.

But how exactly are these 32 teams determined from over 200 national sides around the globe? Let‘s break down the qualification process and the specific teams who‘ve made it to Qatar 2022.

Biennial World Cup Tradition

The FIFA World Cup has been contested every 4 years (with exceptions during WWII) since the first tournament in 1930 Uruguay that featured only 13 teams. Over the last 25 editions, the World Cup has grown enormously in global popularity, viewership, revenue generated, and number of participating nations.

The number of qualified teams has gradually increased from 13 in 1930 to 32 starting with the 1998 France edition.

World Cup Qualification Process

According to FIFA statutes, the World Cup host nation automatically qualifies. The remaining 31 spots are determined through a two-year qualification process involving over 200 national teams divided into regional confederations.

Each confederation is allocated a set number of qualifying berths based on their relative footballing strength and FIFA world rankings. For example, dominant regions like UEFA (Europe) get 13 spots while smaller confederations like OFC (Oceania) get only 1 spot.

After group and knockout rounds overseen by the 6 continental confederations, the 31 qualified teams join the hosts for a total of 32 participating national sides.

FIFA World Rankings Crucial for Seeding

The latest FIFA world rankings before the World Cup are used to allocate qualified teams into 4 pots for the tournament group stage draw. The 8 groups are formed by picking one team from each pot sequentially.

This seeding process using world rankings tries to prevent groups of death with multiple giants, ensuring relatively fair groups.

Qualified National Teams for Qatar 2022

Given the complex continental qualification process spanning two years, the 32 teams who make it to the World Cup represent the best national sides today. Here are the qualified teams at Qatar 2022:

UEFA (Europe) – 13 Teams

• Belgium
• Croatia
• Denmark
• England
• France
• Germany
• Netherlands
• Poland
• Portugal
• Serbia
• Spain
• Switzerland
• Wales

CAF (Africa) – 5 Teams

• Cameroon
• Ghana
• Morocco
• Senegal
• Tunisia

AFC (Asia) – 6 Teams

• Australia

(originally from OFC)

• Iran
• Japan
• Qatar (hosts)
• Saudi Arabia
• South Korea

CONMEBOL (South America) – 4 Teams

• Argentina
• Brazil
• Ecuador
• Uruguay

CONCACAF (North/Central America & Caribbean) – 4 Teams

• Canada
• Costa Rica
• Mexico
• USA

Group Stage and Knockout Round

These 32 qualified teams are drawn into 8 even groups of 4 teams each. After round-robin group stage play, the top 2 teams from each group will advance to a 16-team single elimination knockout bracket.

Based on their FIFA rankings and pedigree, Brazil, Argentina, France, England, Spain, and Germany seem poised to make deep knockout stage runs at the 2022 World Cup.

As a lifelong football fanatic, I‘ll be closely following the world‘s best players like Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappe, and Neymar battle for national pride and glory over 64 intense matches in Qatar!