The tournament, which will see 23 teams vie to be Arab champions, will be staged until December 18 at six of the eight stadiums which will host games in 2022.

"This is the main test event for us prior to the World Cup in 2022," said World Cup 2022 chief executive Nasser al-Khater.

"At previous editions of the World Cup the Confederations Cup which had eight teams was their main test event, this will have 23."

So far Qatar has inaugurated three new venues and one refurbished ground with four still to open. Khater said two would be inaugurated before December.

The FIFA Arab Cup 2021 in December this year will be a great opportunity to unite the Arab World through football besides testing Qatar’s operational readiness for the prestigious FIFA World Cup in 2022, the game’s global chief Gianni Infantino said on Tuesday.

Infantino was speaking at the draw ceremony of the FIFA Arab Cup at Katara Opera House last evening where the tournament’s four groups were decided. Qatar have been placed in a relatively easy Group A along with Iraq, with two teams from among Oman, Somalia, Bahrain and Kuwait joining them through a qualifying process later.

“The FIFA Arab Cup will be a fantastic event, the first of many more to come, hopefully,” Infantino said in his brief address.

“The event will prepare Qatar for the World Cup and unite the Arab world’s 450 million people who will cheer and cherish and find out which of the 23 teams is the best in the Arab world,” he added.

The FIFA president added that preparations are on track for Qatar to deliver the “best ever World Cup” in history.

“Everything is almost ready in Qatar to host the Arab Cup and the World Cup. Much more important is the celebration of Arab unity, a celebration of fraternity, a celebration of football which will set the scene for what would be the best ever FIFA World Cup in 2022 here in Qatar.” Infantino said he was honoured to be present at the draw.

“It is a great pleasure to be here today in front of you what is indeed a historic event,” he said.

The 14 lowest-ranked teams according to the April edition of the FIFA world rankings will participate in single-leg playoffs ahead of the tournament.

Qatar national team coach Felix Sanchez said "this is a tournament Qatar is ready to deal with -- they have all the stadiums, all the logistics that they need".

While FIFA has insisted the World Cup will be played in full stadiums, the virus prevention measures for this year's event have not yet been disclosed.

"We really want to host the tournaments with the full return of fans. We hope the medical world will get us back to that stage by the end of the year," Khater added. "We're ready for any eventuality."