2018 FIFA World Cup

The 2018 FIFA World Cup will be the 21st edition for the men's national football teams. The 2018 FIFA World Cup will be taking place in the European part of Russia from June 14 to July 15.

The FIFA World Cup in Russia for 2018 will be played after the 2018 Winter Olympics and the 2018 Winter Paralympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. There is expected to be just 32 teams participating in the tournament from five or six confederations.

The news said the FIFA World Cup might expand from 32 to 40 teams, so they can have five in each group instead of four. They might say this will stay with 32 teams if it's true. Sepp Blatter decided to have 2018 a 32 team tournament.

Russia automatically qualifies as the host nation, with their last appearances as Russia or USSR being in United States 1994, South Korea/Japan 2002, and Brazil 2014. Four years earlier, Russia hosted the 2014 Winter Olympics and the 2014 Winter Paralympics, and their team qualified for Brazil 2014.

After the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, Russia should lose hosting rights and make the World Cup move to another country. However Russia kept it's right to host despite withdrawing from the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest.

Bidding
Russia won the bid to host the event, defeating the bid from England, the two host country bids of Portugal, who would host the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest and Spain, and Belgium and the Netherlands.

Failing Countries
After the qualifying was done, the teams that did not qualify are on the list.

Since three 2014 teams (Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Belgium) were drawn in qualifying Group H in Europe, one or two of them will fail; but Russia has to play qualifying in Group H as the host country, similar to South Africa in 2010; the Russia games don't count in the standings. Group E and D in Europe had teams from at least the 2010 tournament and the fake 2014 qualification map but not the real 2014 map. In African third round, since Algeria, Nigeria and Cameroon were all drawn together in the same qualifying group; two of those teams will not qualify for the World Cup.

Indonesia, Zimbabwe, and Barbados weren't allowed to play the 2018 World Cup due to their disqualification. Since CONMEBOL allows four or five berths, one or two of the six teams from 2014 has to fail.

Trivia

 * Many people suggested that Russia would have to be axed from hosts due to the 2014 Ukrainian evolution and the Crimea. It moved the 2015 FIFA World Cup qualification game between Ukraine-Belarus from April 5 to Mid-Ohio.
 * Germany will not automatically qualify as defending champions.
 * Euro 2016 in France, which overlaps with the same year of the Rio Olympics, will be in the same continent.
 * Europe's qualification will start on the same day as the second-last IndyCar round and the 2016 BATC Season 8 Finals, in Boston.
 * People also called the World Cup to move it from Russia to a different for 2018, and Qatar from it's original June-July date to the Winter Olympics; and Qatar was moved to November and December.
 * In June 2015, there has been suggestions moving the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to different countries.
 * Indonesia and Zimbabwe were expelled from the qualifying competition.
 * This was supposted to have 40 teams, but FIFA president said it will stay to 32 for 2018.
 * Barbados was disqualified in CONCACAF qualifying for using an ineligible player.
 * This will be the first World Cup in Europe since 2006.

Qualified Countries
The 2018 FIFA World Cup will have 32 teams since the 48-team format will be introduced in 2026. If New Zealand qualifies by winning an inter-continent playoff, all six confederations will participate. The next FIFA World Cup will take place in Qatar in November and December because it didn't want to clash with the Winter Olympics in China PR; and it is legal to have the World Cup in 2023. Since CONMEBOL had six teams in 2014, one of them is off for 2018. Notably, teams that failed to qualify were 2017 African Cup of Nations winner Cameroon.

Germany did not automatically qualify as defending champs; but qualified themselves for the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup, taking place in the same country a year earlier. One of football's most successful teams, defending champions Brazil and Argentina, failed to qualify after not winning the tournament and Chile won the 2015 Copa America. Only hosts Russia automatically qualified and did not need any qualifying games, and 2018 will be Russia's 11th appearance on the world stage as FIFA considers Russia who qualified themselves as the Soviet Union.

Group D and E of qualification in Europe had no 2014 team (but Poland and Serbia were qualifiers for the fake map), so the winner of the two groups will replace a 2014 team. Additionallty, Group H of qualification in Europe contains Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Greece; so this was the first time since 2010 Group 6 that contained three teams from the previous World Cup. Additionally, Algeria, Nigeria and Cameroon; who all participated in both the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, are all drawn together in the same African qualifying group.
 * Qualified teams


 * AFC
 * 🇮🇷 iran
 * 🇯🇵 japan
 * 🇰🇷 south korea
 * CAF
 * CAF


 * CONCACAF
 * 🇲🇽 mexico
 * CONMEBOL
 * 🇧🇷 brazil
 * OFC


 * UEFA
 * 🇧🇪 belgium
 * 🇷🇺 russia (Host)

Group stage
The 🇷🇺 russian hosts were automatically drawn in group A.