LONDON – The 2022 World Cup in Qatar is nearly here, with 32 hopeful nations from around the world coming together to compete for the title of World Cup champions.
However, in both the UK and the US, all eyes are on Group B, with England, Wales, and the USA all competing in the same group – along with Iran, of course.
With only two places in the last 16 up for grabs, Group B is bound to create plenty of drama, but which of the four nations involved traveled the furthest distance during qualifying to earn a spot at Qatar 2022?
As part of their World Cup Travel Index campaign, betting.com has revealed exactly that – ranking and revealing the nations that have traveled the furthest to reach the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
See how the Group B nations ranked below:
England comes bottom of Group B when it comes to air miles, having traveled a total distance of 8,832.09 round miles during the team’s qualifying campaign.
The Three Lions made five away trips, all clocking in between 1,000 and 2,000 round miles, with the longest journey being to Albania at 1,903.23 round miles.
Wales placed just above England in third, with the Welsh team traveling slightly further during qualifying, racking up 10,161.14 round miles in total.
Wales did, however, have to contend with two playoff games against Austria, then Ukraine in order to qualify for the 2022 World Cup, bringing the nation’s total number of qualifying games to six.
Next up is Iran, whose national team put in 15,556,97 round miles during qualifying. With two stages of World Cup qualification in the AFC (Asian Football Confederation), Iran technically played nine away games, despite having only made six away trips.
This is because one round of AFC qualifying takes place in a host nation, which in Iran’s case was Iran, meaning some of the nation’s ‘away’ games were played at home. Ironically for Iran, at its closest point, Iran is just 154.5 miles from Doha, Qatar – a very short trip indeed.
The national team that traveled the furthest to reach the 2022 World Cup is the USA, after the US men’s national team put in an astonishing 22,216.43* (USA distance measured from the TQL Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio where the USMNT most frequently played home games) round miles over seven away games.
Qualifying through CONCACAF, the USA made trips as far as Panama and Jamaica during their efforts to make it to Qatar.
And there you have it, a bit more of an unconventional travel piece that shows the logistics of how such teams in Group B have to travel far to make qualification for the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Doha.
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