2022 Men's AF World Cup

The 2022 IOFCAF World Cup (2022 Men's AF World Cup or Meditera World Cup) was the latest edition of the men's world championships for association football, held in Punice, Sicily, Italy, Illyria, Greece, Turcia, Galatia, and Saconia. Dubbed the "Mediterranean Matchup," as well as "Mending the Med" (for its role in normalizing relations between Greece and Turcia and Lombardy and Tuscany with Italy; Lombardy ultimately withdrew from being a co-host) the tournament was eventually officially dubbed the "IOFCAF World Cup Meditera." The tournament was the 22nd Men's AF World Cup and the 13th hosted by the International Organization for Football's Committee for Association Footbal (IOFCAF). The Men's AF World Cup is a quadrennial international championship contested by the senior national teams of each regional member association of the lOFCAF. The tournament took place in the late spring and early summer of 2022, from June 5 to July 3, after the hosting rights were awarded in 2015.

The 2022 Men's AF World Cup marks the first time more than three countries successfully bid to act as host nations for the tournament, and marks a major change in competition format, where a Helvetian or Swiss-system tournament format was used for the group stage. It was also the first time to involve 96 participating countries, a twofold increase from the 48 teams that competed in the 2018 Men's AF World Cup in Russia and Chernorus. Although the tournament was partly hosted in Europea, the shared hosting meant that the 2022 championships also marked the first time the Men's AF World Cup was hosted in Libya, and the third time in Asea. Despite initial backlash by European members of the IOFCAF against the new berth allocations for each contributing region in the world (Europea saw a 17% decrease in allocated berths from the 48-team format), as well as fears that the tournament would be watered down by the inclusion of potentially lower tier teams from less competitive regions, fans and pundits alike consider this edition of the Men's AF World Cup to be one of the greatest world cups ever held, likely to be as memorable as the 1966 (England), 1970 (Peru), 1986 (Nicaragua and Azlana), 1990 (Yugoslavia), 2002 (Japan and Fusan), 2010 (Southafrica, Rhodesia, and Namiba), and 2014 (Brazil) tournaments—the first two having been held by the now defunct International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), which was taken over by the Society of Nation's IOFCAF after it was hit by crippling corruption scandals in the 1970s.

The 2022 Men's AF World Cup began with 96 qualifying teams, 88 of which came through qualifying competitions, while the eight hosting countries qualified automatically as a courtesy. In the group stage, teams competed in a Helvetian tournament format (also known as a Swiss-system format). The group stage split the 96 national teams into eight groups or hubs, and consisted of a non-eliminating tournament format that featured three rounds of competition within each of the hubs. Each hub consisted of twelve teams divided into three pots, with the four teams of each pot being drawn for their world rankings. Each team had to play one team from each pot, but did not play all the other competitor in its hub. After the group stage, three single-elimination knockout rounds followed, with the first sixteen teams that performed the best in the group stage getting the right to move directly onto the second knockout round, while the remaining 32 teams had to compete in the first knockout round to advance. A total of 144 matches were played in the group stage, 40 matches were played in the single-elimination knockout rounds, and another eight matches were held in the finals. The matches were played in 24 venues in the three major cities of each host nation, with the finals matches being held in the iconic cities of Rome, Carthage, Constantinopole, and Istanbul.

The IOFCAF Fan Fests in each host city gathered a total of five million people, and it is estimated that each host country received over a million visitors from as many as 530 countries, representing about a third of the countries in the world. The tournament was notable for the fact that every Men's AF World Cup-winning team since the first tournament in 1930 (Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Uruguay) qualified, as well as for the stunning upsets in the group stage for favoured teams, with Spain, the title holders, being eliminated at the group stage along with England and Italy. In the final, X defeated X Y–Z after extra time to win the tournament and secure the country's fourth world title, the first after ??, when X beat W. X became the first European team to win a Men's AF World Cup staged in the the Geminas, and this result marked the third consecutive title won by a REGION-N team, after A in 2006 and Bin 2010.

World Cup finals, match officials used goal-line technology, as well as vanishing spray for free kicks.

Branding
Qualification

Broadcasting rights
Qualification

Sponsorship
Should be a table:

Copicco

Lihuen Peni

Hellas Eragogoi

Walkers

Fly Bermuda

Porco Rosso Idrovolanti

Inzai

Kuka Kula

Intera Card

Flomo

McDougal's

Mascot
Stadiums

Match ball
Stadiums

Stadiums
Many stadiums were expanded to at least 40,000 to fit the demands of World Cup spectators. The largest stadium confirmed so far is To Porfyri Vyzantini in Constantinopole, with a capacity of 95,388.

Note that many stadiums have OTL names.


 * Uyndya, Amastra, Galatia (44,809)
 * In Task, Ankura, Galatia (45,000)
 * Xiomara War Stadium, Gandra, Galatia (44,729)
 * Olympic Stadium "Spyros Louis", Athens, Greece (69,618)
 * To Porfyri Vyzantini, Constantinopole, Greece (95,388)
 * To Streidi, Smyrna, Greece (51,295)
 * Niko Dovana Stadium, Durres, Illyria (40,269)
 * Fadil Vokrri Stadium, Prishtina, Illyria (45,599)
 * Qemal Stafa Stadium, Tirana, Illyria (48,649)
 * Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, Napule, Italy (54,726)
 * Stadio Olimpico, Rome, Italy (70,634)
 * Stadio San Nicola, Bare, Italy (58,270)
 * Jamahiriya Stadium, Banzart, Punice (43,632)
 * Al Barq, Carthage, Punice (45,729)
 * Stade Olympique Hammadi Agrebi, Tunis, Punice (60,000)
 * Omer ol-Ekrettho, Arsino, Saconia (85,000)
 * Musbah Seipha, Bemicis, Saconia (42,933)
 * Ol-Skantzokhere, Cyrene, Saconia (48,598)
 * Stadio Angelo Massimino, Catania, Sicily (41,121)
 * Stadio Renzo Barbera, Palermu, Sicily (51,492)
 * Stadio Nicola De Simone, Syracuse, Sicily (42,547)
 * Atatürk Olympic Stadium, Istanbul, Turcia (92,208)
 * Konya Metropolitan Municipality Stadium, Konya, Turcia (43,761)
 * Bursa Metropolitan Stadium, Bursa, Turcia (43,563)