The 2022 World Cup begins in Qatar on Sunday. 64 matches will be played. We explain which TV channels will broadcast the World Cup live.
The highly controversial 2022 World Cup in Qatar begins this Sunday. Between 20 November and 18 December, 32 nations will play for the World Cup title. Since the awarding of the World Cup, critics have been engaged in a bitter debate. There will be no boycott, the games will start in Qatar on Sunday. For the German national team, it is an opportunity to make amends after the botched World Cup 2018 in Russia. In the preliminary round, they will play Japan, Spain and Costa Rica.
However, reports about deceased migrant workers, a lack of human rights as well as hostility against homosexuals in the Emirate and a non-transparent tournament allocation by Fifa are overshadowing the anticipation of the World Cup among some fans. Those who still want to watch the games live on TV can do so on three channels ^.
Football fans will be able to watch 64 matches at the World Cup before Christmas. 48 of them will be broadcast live on free TV and in a free live stream on the public broadcasters ARD and ZDF. The remaining 16 matches can be seen on the pay-TV channel Magenta TV. These include two round of 16 matches, one quarter-final and the match for third place, provided the German national team does not compete here. With a paid Magenta subscription, all 64 World Cup matches can be watched live. Magenta had already secured the rights for the 2021 European Championship.
ARD and ZDF will each show 18 matches in the group phase. The opening match between Qatar and Ecuador will be broadcast on ZDF this Sunday. The World Cup final has been secured by ARD.
WM 2022 in Qatar: Who will broadcast the German matches?
Germany – Japan: 23 November, 2 p.m. (ARD)
Germany – Spain: 27 November, 8 p.m. (ZDF)
Germany – Costa Rica: 1 December, 8 p.m. (ARD)
Should Germany reach the round of 16, ARD and ZDF will broadcast alternately until a possible final with German participation. The round of 16 would be shown on ZDF, the quarter-finals on ARD, the semi-finals again on ZDF and the final on ARD.
ARD and ZDF at the 2022 World Cup: This is the team and experts
For ARD, presenter Esther Sedlaczek and expert Bastian Schweinsteiger will be on duty at World Cup matches in Qatar to present the match of the day. Commentators will be Tom Bartels, Gerd Gottlob, Florian Naß and Christina Graf.
ZDF will be hosted by Katrin Müller-Hohenstein and Jochen Breyer. World champions Per Mertesacker and Christoph Kramer as well as national coach Martin Voss-Tecklenburg will act as experts. Commentating on the matches will be Béla Réthy, Oliver Schmidt, Claudia Neumann and Martin Schneider.
Magenta TV at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar: Team, Experts Commentators
The broadcaster will enter the World Cup race with a prominent team. Among others, World Cup presenter Johannes B. Kerner, the expert team Michael Ballack and Tabea Kemme as well as football commentator Wolff Fuss will be part of the team. MagentaTV will offer up to 14 hours of programming daily on three channels as well as a conference for parallel matches. All matches of the World Cup will also be available in UHD on MagentaTV receivers.
The team will also include former national player Tabea Kemme, Hertha BSC managing director Fredi Bobic, two-time Champions League winner Javi Martinez, Bundesliga professional Lars Stindl, World Cup runner-up and South America expert Martin Demichelis and referee expert Patrick Ittrich. The tactics analyses are presented by Jan Henkel together with former Bundesliga coach Manuel Baum and Tobias Schweinsteiger. Additional social media host in the studio is TikToker Paul Fischer.