World Cup Fever

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has called on the Netherlands international team management to be cautious in their handling of star defender Virgil Van Dijk, and even suggested that they don't call him up for the upcoming Euros tournament. The defender has continued to work hard towards marking a return to the first team after suffering an injury that ruled him out for the rest of the season.

Van Dijk has been a big miss for Liverpool this season and because of his absence, the Reds have not been able to perform to their potential. The Reds captain played a huge role in helping his club clinch the English Premier League title last season but he was a casualty in the Merseyside derby against Everton earlier in the season as he clashed with the Toffees goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, meaning he had to sit out the other part of the season through injury.

Former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, who now occupies a role as the technical director of football at FIFA level, has confirmed that come 2022, there will be an introduction of automated off-side calls to help prevent more mistakes by referees during games.

The development is coming into existence following calls by football players, fans, and pundits for match officials to do everything possible to avoid costly mistakes that would have a huge impact on the outcome of games. There have been cases when players would score goals and run off to celebrate only for the goal to be chalked off some moments later and be ruled offside.

The United Arab Emirates have confirmed that they will be playing against India in a friendly match as they look to gear up their preparations for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar next year.

The UAE have been pitted against fellow World Cup qualification hopefuls Indonesia and Malaysia who are all in Group G in the qualifiers. They were supposed to play their match against Malaysia on the 25th of March and against Indonesia just five days after (30thbif March) but those fixtures have been postponed and will now be played in June.

While the wait for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar continues to intensify, football fans around the world continue to become impatient and are insisting that they cannot wait for next year to arrive so the tournament could finally kick-off. As the wait for the global showpiece continues to drag on, fans can now console themselves with another FIFA tournament which is set to take place next month.

The FIFA Club World Cup is the next major FIFA tournament which will feature clubs from around the world who will compete for the crown. The tournament will last between the 4th of February till on the 12th of the same month. It has since been confirmed by the Qatar News Agency (QNA) that two of the FIFA 2022 World Cup Stadiums will be used for the tournament as both FIFA and Qatar look to continue attempts to put every arrangement in place ahead of the tournament starting next year, including making use of some of its Stadiums and confirming their readiness.

Brazilian football legend Cafu is certain that winning the World Cup trophy is the dream of every football player as he said that the current footballers would be trying to win the trophy at the next edition of the tournament known as World Cup 2022 tournament in Qatar.

Cafu also pointed out that the World Cup trophy means a lot to those who have won it before. Cafu is a two-time World Cup champion and the ex-AS Roma and AC Milan fullback is in tune with the belief that the World Cup is for everyone and that every country has the right to bid for it and also host it. Cafu won the World Cup trophy for the first time at the 1994 edition in the United States of America. Cafu and Brazil beat Italy in a penalty shootout after the two teams could not find the back of the net at the end of both regulation time and extra time.

The 2022 FIFA World Cup tournament in Qatar starts in less than two years and countries are already in the thick of action as regards playing qualifiers to book their spot at the tournament. World Cup 2022 is the edition number 22 in the history of the tournament.

In addition, World Cup 2022 will be the second time the tournament is hosted in the Asian continent after the 2002 FIFA World Cup tournament was held in South Korea and Japan. Brazil beat Germany 2-0 in the final of that tournament courtesy the brace from Ronaldo de Lima, one of the leading marksmen in the history of the World Cup. The 2022 World Cup will take place from 21 November to 18 December 2022

FIFA has taken the initiative to spread football throughout the world. This is why they have started to select new venues where football is popular but not touching the mark. As a step to this initiative, FIFA handed over the responsibility of organizing the tournament to countries like Korea, Japan, South Africa, and so on. In fact, they also let India organize the Under-17 World Cup which they did tremendously well. Now FIFA has selected Qatar as the venue of the World cup 2022.

Many critics criticized this decision considering the weather of the country. As the tournament is organized in the middle of the year after every 4 years, so in the month of June and July the weather there will be at its extreme heights. The temperature hits the highest of more than 50-degree centigrade during the day. Thus the players may face immense problems to play in such conditions.

Singapore's top scorer when it comes to World Cup 2022 qualification has been Ikhsan Fandi. He is none other than the son of national legend Fandi Ahmad. The striker is regarded as one of the greatest players to have represented the Singaporean national team. He featured in 101 games for the national team and scored 55 goals. These goals have helped him secure a place in the Hall of Fame put up by the Asian Football Confederation.

On Monday, Qatar officially launched the third completed stadium for FIFA World Cup 2022. The third stadium named Education Cityis officially going to host matches until the quarter-finalsand they have the capacity to hold 40,000 people. The launch where the official members of both FIFA and Qatar have participated they have given tribute to all the workers for the fight against COVID 19.

Tottenham Hotspur are believed to be the favourites to land Queens Park Rangers star Ebere Eze once the summer transfer window opens, as per reports. The 21-year-old midfielder has been one of the Championship's standout performers, racking up 12 goals and eight assists for an otherwise unspectacular QPR side to keep them around the middle of the table.