1 . How the 2022 World Cup Works

The World Cup is nearly here. The schedule is complete. The leagues have stopped. The players have arrived. Yet even as the teams know where they are meant to be and who they are meant to play, there are still plenty of questions about how things will unfold as soccer moves center stage over the month in Qatar.     1    

This year’s host is Qatar, which in 2010 beat the United States and Japan to win the right to hold the tournament. Whether that was an honest competition remains in dispute.     2     The World Cup has never been held on the Arabian Peninsula before.

The tournament will open on Nov.20, when Qatar plays Ecuador. That counts as a slow day; over the two weeks that follow, four games will be played on most days.     3     when the winner gets a very heavy (and surprisingly small) gold trophy.

No. The World Cup usually takes place in July or it did, until Qatar won the right to host it. Considering the fact that its temperatures can reach 120 degrees (48.8℃), FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, agreed to move the tournament to the relatively bearable months of November and December.

    5     At 4,416 square miles, it is 0.12 percent of the size of the United States and by far the smallest nation ever to host the World Cup. All the games will take place in a tight circle of eight stadiums in and around the capital, Doha, making it the smallest-sized World Cup in history.