FIFA, Qatar finally make decision on alcohol sales at World Cup

Nigeria went out to Ghana on away goals in CAF's final playoff round, having qualified for the previous three World Cups and six out of the last seven. Egypt, Panama, Colombia, Peru, Iceland and Sweden, all of whom qualified for the 2018 World Cup, also did not qualify for the 2022 tournament. The knockout stage is a single-elimination tournament in which teams play each other in one-off matches, with extra time and penalty shootouts used to decide the winner if necessary. It begins with the round of 16 in which the winner of each group plays against the runner-up of another group. This is followed by the quarter-finals, the semi-finals, the third-place match (contested by the losing semi-finalists), and the final. FIFA's six continental confederations organise their own qualifying competitions.

If such a game is still tied after extra time, it is then decided by a penalty shoot-out. The tournament has been decided by a one-off match on every occasion except 1950, when the tournament winner was decided by a final round-robin group contested by four teams . Uruguay's 2–1 victory over Brazil was the decisive match that put them ahead on points and ensured that they finished top of the group as world champions.

Early World Cups were given to countries at meetings of FIFA's congress. The locations were controversial because South America and Europe were by far the two centres of strength in football and travel between them required three weeks by boat. The decision to hold the first World Cup in Uruguay, for example, led to only four European nations competing. The decision to hold the second of these in France was disputed, as the South American countries understood that the location would alternate between the two continents. On 10 January 2017, FIFA approved a new format, the 48-team World Cup , which consists of 16 groups of three teams each, with two teams qualifying from each group, to form a round of 32 knockout stage, to be implemented by 2026.

The Sunday Times published bribery allegations based on a leak of millions of secret documents. Jim Boyce, vice-president of FIFA, has gone on record stating he would support a re-vote to find a new host if the corruption allegations are proven. FIFA completed a lengthy investigation into these allegations and a report cleared Qatar of any wrongdoing. Despite the claims, the Qataris insist that the corruption allegations are being driven by envy and mistrust while Sepp Blatter said it is fuelled by racism in the British media.

A Minimum Wage Committee was also formed to check on the implementation. These reforms removed the kafala system and a contractual system was introduced. Three players share the record for playing in the most World Cups; Mexico's Antonio Carbajal (1950–1966) and Rafael Márquez (2002–2018); and Germany's Lothar Matthäus (1982–1998) all played in five tournaments. Matthäus has played the most World Cup matches overall, with 25 appearances. Brazil's Djalma Santos (1954–1962), West Germany's Franz Beckenbauer (1966–1974), and Germany's Philipp Lahm (2006–2014) are the only players to be named to three World Cup All-Star Teams.

Few South American teams were willing to travel to Europe for the 1934 World Cup and all North and South American nations except Brazil and Cuba boycotted the 1938 tournament. The 1942 and 1946 competitions, which Germany and Brazil sought to host, were cancelled due to World War II and its aftermath. Fours later, both teams would see themselves in the final once again, but the result was a different one, with Germany finally winning a World Cup Final again. In an ugly affair, the game was marred by the two red cards Argentinian players received during the 90 minutes.