Al Khor. Stadium 974. Any takers? They are among the venues for the 2022 World Cup finals, which will have reached the quarter-final stage by this time next year.
The Republic of Ireland won’t be involved, of course, as Stephen Kenny’s shot at qualification for Qatar ended almost as abruptly as the 2014 campaign under Giovanni Trapattoni.
Since Mick McCarthy led Ireland to within a penalty shootout of the quarter-finals in 2002, Ireland have twice suffered play-off pain, in 2009 and 2017, while Brian Kerr’s team fell short in the final round of group games in 2005.
Might Ireland be making merry on football’s greatest stage again before long? Let’s have a look at how things stand for 2026 and 2030.
Even though the 2026 World Cup is being expanded to 48 teams from 32, the extra slice of the cake for European nations is not all that generous.
While yet to be ratified, it’s widely expected that Europe’s allocation of slots for 2026 will rise by three, from 13 teams to 16.
Given that South America will be bumped up to six slots from just 10 teams, a 60 per cent qualification rate, Europe would be entitled to feel short-changed.
Assuming that 16 is the number, as the 26th best team in Europe, Ireland would have ground to make up, along with a break of the balls in the qualification draw, details of which will be known in December 2023.
UEFA can be expected to implement a process similar to the one in place for the 2022 World Cup, with 10 group winners qualifying directly.
The other six places are likely to be decided via play-offs involving the 10 group runners-up and two group winners from the 2022 Nations League who don’t come first or second in their World Cup groups.
Kenny has already stated his intention to make an impact next summer in the Nations League, which is not before time for Ireland, who have yet to win any of their 10 games in the competition — Kenny will have a better idea of what lies ahead after the qualifying draw tomorrow week.
