The draw at FIFA headquarters in Zurich. (Photo courtesy of FIFA)
Well, Concacaf certainly got a major break at the World Cup Qatar 2022 intercontinental playoff draw on Friday.
The fourth-place finisher in the Octagonal will play an Oceania side for a spot in the World Cup, it was determined at FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland.
The pairings to be decided as a single leg are:
* AFC team v. CONMEBOL team
* Concacaf team v. Oceania team
Oceania is the weakest of all confederations.
With the aim of continuing to test operations ahead of the World Cup, FIFA confirmed Qatar as the neutral venue for the intercontinental play-off matches, which will be played at one of the tournament venues featuring the country’s new cooling system on June 13-14.
The playoffs originally were to take place in March 2022 but were rescheduled to June 2022 as a result of the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to the scheduling of World Cup qualifiers.
Four years ago, Australia and Peru secured passage to the 2018 World Cup Russia via the intercontinental playoffs with wins over Honduras and New Zealand, respectively.