With less than a year to go until the 2022 World Cup gets underway in Qatar, we are edging ever closer to learning who will be involved in the last men's World Cup with 32 teams.
England are one of a number of European sides to have already booked their place at the tournament, having finished top of their qualifying group without losing a single game. Gareth Southgate's side will be using the March international break to play friendlies against Switzerland and Cote d'Ivoire, while the 10 group runners-up and two Nations League qualifiers take part in a crucial set of play-offs.
There's also everything to play for in Africa, where 10 teams are battling it out for five spots in Qatar, while there are still places up for grabs in each of the other confederations. A number of other qualified teams will be confirmed during the latest break, with the last spots to be assigned over the summer.
When is the final draw made?
The Group Stage draw for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar will be made on April 1, 2022 in Doha, Qatar. This will be after the majority of qualifying has taken place, with the upcoming games bringing the number of confirmed qualifiers up to 30.
The remaining two spots will go to the winners of the inter-confederation play-offs, which are due to take place in June 2022. The fifth-placed team in the South American (CONMEBOL) qualifying table will take on opponents from AFC (Asia), while the Oceania (OFC) winners will take on the fourth-placed team from North America, Central America and Caribbean (CONCACAF).
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Who will be involved in the draw?
32 teams will be involved at the 2022 World Cup, which includes nations from Africa (5), Asia (4 or 5), Europe (13), Oceania (0 or 1), North America, Central America and Caribbean (3 or 4) and South America (4 or 5).
Qatar have already qualified for the tournament as hosts and will be automatically assigned to Group A. 10 of the 13 European spots have also already been determined, with Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Croatia, England and Germany all progressing as group winners.
Brazil and Argentina have already qualified from South America with games to spare, and the same goes for Iran and South Korea in the AFC qualification campaign. Canada and Ecuador, meanwhile, are assured of an intercontinental play-off place at a minimum.
There will be some big teams missing out, thanks to the makeup of the play-offs. Only one of Italy and Portugal can qualify from Europe, while Africa Cup of Nations finalists Senegal and Egypt have been drawn together in the CAF play-offs, meaning one of the two will miss out.
What format will the tournament have?
As with the 2018 World Cup, the 32 teams will be drawn into eight groups of four, listed alphabetically from Group A to Group H, and teams drawn together will play each other once. The top two from each group will advance to the knockout stage, with group winners facing group runners-up in the last 16..
The Group Stage will take place over 12 days, with four matches being played each day, and Qatar is three hours ahead of the UK time-wise. The first match is set to take place on Monday, November 21, 2022 at the Al Bayt Stadium, featuring the hosts Qatar, while the final games in groups G and H will take place on December 2.
Where will the matches be played?
There are eight host stadiums for the 2022 World Cup. Four of these are in Qatar's capital City, Doha, while the others are split between four different cities: Lusail, Al-Khor, Al-Rayyan and Al-Wakrah.
All eight of the stadiums have capacities of between 40,000 and 80,000. Lusail Iconic Stadium is the largest of the eight, and will be the venue for the World Cup final on December 18.
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