Brutal draw this morning potentially for Socceroos should they finish third in their Asian group, then face potentially UAE or Lebanon or Iraq in a one legged playoff in early June likely in Qatar(venue/date tbc)…then a one legged playoff vs South American 5th would await in Qatar on June 13 or 14, looking like any one of Peru/Uruguay/Colombia/Chile/Paraguay/Bolivia (only 4 points between 4th to 9th in South America with 4 rounds to go). Im sure channel 10 would love Socceroos v Uruguary part 3.
Just before the intercontinental playoff draw, the Euro playoffs draw took place to determine 6 semis and 3 finals in March, with a likely Portugal v Italy one legged playoff in Portugal should both win their home semis 5 days earlier. In my opinion they should have seeded the top 3 nations (Portugal, Scotland, Italy) into the 3 different playoff paths to prevent the chance one of the last 2 Euro champions being assured of missing the World Cup finals. One of Italy or Portugal missing the finals is bad news for FIFA.
Ive also read the entire Oceania qualifying will be in Qatar in March(Oceania qualifying draw is this coming Tuesday)…and potentially the 5 African playoffs could be switched from home/away ties to be just single legs all in Qatar in March as well(I would say 2 legs home/away still more likely but tbd before the African playoff draw which will be sometime between January 22-26, which has been delayed as there are 2 disputes from the previous round). So Qatar are getting to host alot of World Cup qualifiers, but sad to see covid impact the proper traditional format and schedule like this.