Those in charge of carrying the weight of the hopes and expectations of an entire country during the FIFA World Cup are the privileged ones who are called up to form part of a National Team. Qatar 2022 brings a surprise in this respect once again.
For starters, there will be the possibility of seeing more players during the Qatar 2022 matches, as FIFA has authorized 5 changes to take place, a trend that began in support of player and team integrity during the Covid-19 pandemic.
And if that were not enough, the upcoming FIFA World Cup will add another novelty that will enter the history of this tournament as a watershed, along with the fact that Qatar 2022 will be the first edition, in 92 years of history, to be played in the Middle East, at the end of the year and not in May, June or July, with female central referees, and this is the number of players that may be called to the squads of the qualified National Teams.
The history of the National Teams’ rosters in FIFA World Cups
The FIFA World Cup has now been held for 92 years in 22 editions, including the upcoming Qatar 2022 edition. Evidently, at the beginning, in Uruguay 1930, they did not even imagine the cultural and sporting phenomenon that this tournament would become. Thus, there were signs of amateurism throughout the first editions.
A clear example of this is the number of players called up by each of the 13 National Teams that played in edition 1 of the FIFA World Cup. The team with the most players in its roster was Brazil with 23, followed by Argentina, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay with 22, Chile with 19, Yugoslavia, Mexico and Bolivia with 17, the United States, France and Belgium with 16, and Romania with 15.
The situation of disparity in the squads, due to the resources and the distance the squads had to travel to bring the host country to the World Cup, was repeated in Italy 1934, France 1938, Brazil 1950 and Switzerland 1954. It was in the 1958 edition of Sweden that all 16 participating National Teams uniformly took 22 players in their roster.
Thus, the rule was extended and the number of players called up by each National Team that qualified for the FIFA World Cup was always 22. This lasted until France 1998 edition. After that, i.e. from Korea-Japan 2002 onwards, one more player was included, bringing the number of players per team to 23. Until Qatar 2022 appeared on the horizon.
How many players can be called up per team for the upcoming FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022?
FIFA had already announced the approval of a modification to the rosters of the 32 National Teams that will participate in Qatar 2022. This contemplated the possibility of having 15 substitutes on the bench instead of 12. If arithmetic does not lie, added to the 11 players on the field, the rosters for the upcoming World Cup will be 26 players.
Thus, for the first time in history, National Teams seeking glory at the FIFA World Cup will be able to have more than 3 changes available to make, as well as 3 more players to call upon to change the course of the matches they play, a minimum of three.