The tournament kicks off this weekend in Qatar
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
The biggest soccer tournament in the world gets underway this weekend in Qatar.
Thirty-two national teams from around the world have qualified for the 2022 World Cup and will try to hoist the FIFA World Cup trophy after the final whistle blows on Dec. 18.
Hosts Qatar and Ecuador will play the tournament’s first match on Nov. 20.
The countries are divided into eight groups with each group containing four teams.
The first round of the tournament is a round robin. The top two teams from each group progress to the knockout stage, where a single loss will end a team’s World Cup dreams.
Soccer analysts are combing over rosters, formations, and other factors to determine who the world champions will be.
Farms.com will try to predict the winner using ag-related information.
Using available data, Farms.com will determine the group and knockout stage winners using agriculture as a percentage of a country’s gross domestic product.
The two countries in each group where agriculture accounts for larger portions of their GDPs will advance to the knockout stage.
Today’s predictions focus on Groups A to D.
All figures are from 2021 and in $USD unless otherwise noted.
| Group A | Countries | Ag Percentage of GDP | Total GDP in 2021 |
| | Qatar | 0.3 | $179.6 billion |
| Advances to knockout stage | Ecuador | 9.41 | $106.2 billion |
| Winners of Group A | Senegal | 15.32 | $27.63 billion |
| | Netherlands | 1.57 | $1.018 trillion |
| | | | |
| Group B | | | |
| | England | 0.51 | $3.187 trillion |
| Winners of Group B | Iran | 8 percent in 2020 | $231.5 billion in 2020 |
| | USA | 0.6 | $23 trillion |
| Advances to knockout stage | Wales | Less than 2 percent | $90.3 billion in 2020 |
| | | | |
| Group C | | | |
| Winners of Group C | Argentina | 6.87 | $491.5 billion |
| | Saudi Arabia | 3.6 | $833.5 billion |
| Advances to knockout stage | Mexico | 3.84 | $1.293 trillion |
| | Poland | 2.37 | $674 billion |
| | | | |
| Group D | | | |
| | France | 1.63 | $2.937 trillion |
| Advances to knockout stage | Australia | 2.27 | $1.543 trillion |
| | Denmark | 0.97 | $397.1 billion |
| Winners of Group D | Tunisia | 12 | $46.84 billion |
Be sure to check back for the remaining group breakdowns and knockout stage results.