To prepare you for the tournament, The18 has launched team-by-team previews for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. This is the preview for the host nation, Qatar.
World Cup Appearances: First
Best Finish: N/A
How They Got Here: Qualified as host nation
Coach: Félix Sánchez (Spanish)
Chances of being struck by lightning are rare, but even rarest are the stories of those who were able to survive them.
Referee Charlie Panes is one of those stories.
The 24-year-old official was overseeing a match in Bago City, Philippines, when nature hit him.
The action captured on video shows how the lighting first struck an acacia tree before ricocheting toward the ref, in a sequence of events that probably ended up saving his life.
Russian President Vladimir Putin wished Qatar success in staging the upcoming World Cup and said the 2018 hosts were sharing their experience in organizing the tournament.
Russia reached the World Cup quarterfinals in 2018 but is barred from the Nov. 20-Dec. 18 tournament due to its invasion of Ukraine earlier this year.
Putin met Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani on the sidelines of a summit in Kazakhstan on Thursday.
The final FIFA rankings before the 2022 World Cup were released Thursday, revealing a top five that's largely in line with what the odds makers have for the tournament in Qatar.
Brazil rightfully holds the top spot and is seen as the favorite after turning its qualifying campaign into a program on Joga TV, while the Seleção's eternal rivals, Argentina, sit third riding a 35-match unbeaten streak.
MALANG, Indonesia - Andi Hariyanto says he will never watch a football match again after his wife, two teenage daughters and a cousin were crushed to death in a stampede at an Indonesian stadium last week.
Watching local team Arema FC play on Saturday was a special outing for soccer fan Andi's family, including his two-year-old son.
Saturday night's soccer stadium disaster in Indonesia was one of the world's worst such incidents. Here is a look at some of the worst soccer stadium disasters over the last 40 years:
MALANG — Dozens of Indonesian police were placed under investigation on Monday over a stampede at a soccer match that killed 125 people, as authorities sought to determine what caused one of the world's deadliest stadium disasters and who was to blame.
Panicked spectators were crushed on Saturday as they tried to flee the overcrowded stadium in Malang, East Java, after police fired tear gas to disperse fans of Arema FC, who had poured onto the pitch after a 3-2 home defeat to Persebaya Surabaya.
MALANG — At least 174 people were killed and 180 injured in a stampede and riot at a soccer match in Indonesia, officials said on Sunday, in one of the world's worst stadium disasters.
When frustrated supporters of the losing home team invaded the pitch in Malang in the province of East Java late on Saturday, officers fired tear gas in an attempt to control the situation, triggering the stampede and cases of suffocation, East Java police chief Nico Afinta told reporters.
Gregg Berhalter and his United States men’s national team are on a one-way collision course with a nasty ass kicking in Qatar at the World Cup. On Tuesday the USMNT played its final friendly before the World Cup and pathetically tied lowly Saudi Arabia 0-0.
There are few words that can accurately describe how poor the U.S. has looked in the last two friendly games vs. Japan and Saudi Arabia. With no words to summarize these poor performances let’s just let one stat in particular speak.
DOHA — Qatar has called up hundreds of civilians, including diplomats summoned back from overseas, for mandatory military service operating security checkpoints at World Cup stadiums, according to a source and documents seen by Reuters.
The deployment of conscripts, some of whom would normally defer national service because their work is considered vital, highlights the logistical challenge faced by the tiny Gulf Arab state hosting one of the world's biggest sports tournaments.