This year should have been centered around the FIFA World Cup as it happens every four years. Qatar 2022 had the curiosity of starting in November due to the high temperatures that the host nation has in June. But unfortunately for Ukraine, a couple of months ago that changed dramatically.
The invasion of their nation by Russia took the world by surprise. There were a lot of economic sanctions placed against the Russians, and the sports federations didn’t stay back. In that complicated context, almost every athlete from that country had to pay the price.
For the Ukranians there were also consequences since they couldn’t continue competing in their own land. That generated a competitive disadvantage in the most important part of the qualifiers. FIFA along with UEFA of course gave them time by delaying their upcoming obligations. In the end, they were very close to making history though it wasn’t enough.
Why did Ukraine not qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar?
The UEFA qualifiers have the advantage of distributing 13 spots to the FIFA World Cup. However, its format included groups of five or six participants each where only the leaders advanced directly to Qatar 2022. There was another opportunity for those who finishes second in the standings via playoffs, which means you needed a bit of luck in the drawing if you were not a candidate.
That didn’t happen to Ukraine since they shared the group with non-other than the defending champions France. They started greatly with a 1-1 visiting the French, but that success was not sustained throughout their journey. Although at least they could hold on to the second place ending over Finland, Bosnia and Kazakhstan.
So the next step was the playoffs originally scheduled for March, but Ukraine was allowed to delay that date. In June they travelled to Scotland to play the first elimination game, which they astonishingly won 3-1 besides all their preparation issues. The following match was going to be the decisive one in a short trip within the UK to play vs Wales. That’s when their dreams vanished with a tight 1-0 loss to the Welsh that left them out of Qatar 2022.
Using this World Cup Predictor, you can see every potential outcome of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
