How to Watch the World Cup 2022 Qualifiers in the UK
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| How to Watch the World Cup 2022 Qualifiers in the UK |
UK viewers will be pleased to know that all of England's games will be broadcast on free-to-air service ITV and its online service ITV Hub. All games featuring British teams will be broadcast on Sky Sports in the UK, while other games featuring European teams will be broadcast on Sky Sports Red Button. If you’re travelling abroad, you can access all of the above services using a good VPN service, like ExpressVPN.
How to watch the FIFA World Cup 2022 Qualifiers for free in the UK: ITV
The England national team lost to Italy in the Euro 2020 Final after a valiant battle that ended in a heartbreaking penalty shootout. Having gained millions of followers, that team, led by Gareth Southgate and Harry Kane, have now proved that they are real contenders in the international football world and will therefore be watched will keen interest going forward.
Thankfully, if you live in the UK, you’ll be pleased to know that ITV will be broadcasting all 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifier games featuring England on its free-to-air channel and online service, ITV Hub. England play around three matches every international break and this will be a great chance to track the progress of the Three Lions as they pave their way for Qatar, hoping to build on the chemistry they established during the Euros.
Maybe 2022 will be the year that it finally comes home?
How to watch the FIFA World Cup 2022 Qualifiers in the UK: Sky Sports
Apart from the England games, Sky Sports will be broadcasting all the major FIFA World Cup 2022 Qualifier games in the UK. Now there’s a catch as to what games you can actually watch. While Sky will indeed broadcast almost every game featuring most British and some top European nations, most games will be on the Sky Sports Red Channel, which is only available if you’re a Sky TV customer with a Sky Sports package. This package costs £18/mnth over and above your existing Sky TV subscription.
Most other games will be on the main Sky Sports channels, namely Sky Sports Football, Sky Sports Premier League and Sky Sports Main Event. You can watch all the games broadcast on those channels either on Sky TV or by purchasing a Now Sports Membership. Unlike Sky Sports, a Now Sports Membership doesn’t tie you down to any long-term contracts, meaning you can watch for as long as you like for just £33/mnth.
How to watch live World Cup 2022 Qualifiers abroad: use a good VPN service
The only way to watch your favourite teams in the action in the ongoing FIFA World Cup 2022 Qualifiers if you’re abroad on holiday is by using a good VPN service. A VPN basically uses sophisticated code to trick your device into thinking that it’s based anywhere in the world that you want. It also protects your PC by encrypting your entire online connection, so that no one - not your ISP, mobile service provider or hackers - can see what you do online.
There are tons of free and paid-for VPN services but, in our experience, most don’t live up to their tall claims. Thankfully for you, we’ve put the best VPNs to the test to find out which ones actually let you access UK streaming services from abroad. Sadly, only a select few were found to be reliable in all our tests, out of which we highly recommend the below two.
Express VPN: Among all the VPNs we’ve reviewed, ExpressVPN has consistently ranked the best in terms of speed, privacy and unblocking streaming services that most other VPNs struggle to unblock. Its entire service has been publicly audited to prove that your data is in safe hands and none of your online activities are recorded by the company. The best features of the service include 24/7 support, a 30-day moneyback guarantee if you’re unhappy, and a 49% discount if you choose its one-year plan.
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Surfshark VPN: Surfhark VPN is a relative newcomer to the VPN space, but it has made immense strides in the short time that it has been around. Its best feature is that a single VPN subscription can be used on unlimited devices, making it a great option for your entire family or even a group of friends. You’ll find its subscription plans one of the cheapest on the market and it still manages to pack in stunning features like a moneyback guarantee and 24/7 customer support.
FIFA World Cup 2022 Qualifiers
This is fairly broad question because the FIFA World Cup 2022 Qualification process involves teams from all over the world, divided into six confederations. Some confederations have already had a few elimination games, so the remaining 136 teams that still have qualification hopes include:
- 55 European teams (UEFA)
- 12 Asian teams (AFC)
- 40 African teams (CAF)
- 8 North America teams (CONCACAF)
- 10 South America teams (CONMEBOL)
- 11 Oceanic teams (OFC)
While it's true that each of these confederations have their FIFA World Cup qualification games around the same time, how individual groups are segregated, matches are played and how many qualification places are still up for grabs tend to vary broadly. It’s fair to say that this is a logistically complex operation.
Making matters worse is Covid. You’ll have no doubt heard about different players choosing to stay with their Premier League clubs in order to avoid missing games after returning from national duty, even though this can potentially come at the cost of their country missing out on a place in next year’s World Cup.
Thankfully, most qualifying groups are organised in a way that tends to ensure that the strongest teams from each confederation all go through so missing one or two players hopefully won’t make the difference between elimination and qualification for the biggest football tournament in the world.
How do the FIFA World Cup 2022 Qualifiers for European nations work?
As we explained below, it's fairly complex to cover FIFA World Cup 2022 Qualifiers for all 100+ countries that still have hopes of qualification. Therefore, for the sake of convenience, we’ll concentrate on the European nations and their path to qualifying for a place in the FIFA World Cup because this is more relevant and much easier to explain.
The 55 European nations competing for a place in the 2022 Qatar World Cup are divided into 10 groups each. Groups A to E comprises of five teams each, while groups F to J comprises of six groups each. Each teams plays the remaining other teams in the group twice, home and away.
There are 13 European places up for grabs in the 2022 World Cup. These will be awarded to the winners of each of the 10 groups, with the remaining three places going to the runners-up that will compete with other confederations for the final three places. In short, winning the group is the easiest surefire way of securing qualification for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Here are the British teams and the groups that they are currently in.
- Republic of Ireland in Group A
- Northern Ireland is in Group C
- Wales is in Group E
- Scotland is in Group F
- England are in Group I
FIFA World Cup 2022 UEFA Qualification Groups
We've highlighted the British teams for your convenience.
Group A: Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Serbia, Luxembourg, Azerbaijan
Group B: Spain, Sweden, Greece, Georgia, Kosovo
Group C: Italy, Northern Ireland, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Lithuania
Group D: France, Ukraine, Finland, Kazakhstan, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Group E: Belgium, Wales, Czech Republic, Belarus, Estonia
Group F: Denmark, Scotland, Israel, Austria, Faroe Islands, Moldova
Group G: Turkey, Netherlands, Montenegro, Norway, Latvia, Gibraltar
Group H: Croatia, Russia, Slovakia, Cyprus, Slovenia, Malta
Group I: England, Hungary, Albania, Poland, Andorra, San Marino
Group J: Germany, North Macedonia, Armenia, Romania, Iceland, Liechtenstein
What are England's chances of qualifying for the FIFA 2022 World Cup?
As you can see from the table above, England are in Group I. Even though they have five other teams in their group - Hungary, Albania, Andorra, Poland and San Marino - none of them pose a major threat to England's chances. England have also started their FIFA 2022 World Cup campaign on a great note, winning all of their opening games by a big margin, which has given them a great chance to top the group and secure qualification for next year's World Cup without undergoing any of the additional play-off rounds that second-placed teams in the group will have to fight for.
