The 2022 World Cup will a unique affair as it will be played not in the summer but in November of next year. And the Premier League is the first major league in the world who have announced how they are going to cope up with this mid-season madness.
A World Cup in November means all the ongoing leagues will have to be halted midway so that their players go and play the World Cup in Qatar. And then quickly come back to resume their domestic and European season.
The Premier League have just announced their schedule for the 2022/23 season and according to it, the English top division resumes only eight days after the conclusion of the 2022 World Cup.
Yes, only 8 days.
The official statement read: “The Premier League 2022/23 season dates have been confirmed. The season has been adjusted to accommodate the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, which will take place in the middle of the domestic calendar.
“The Premier League season will start on 6 August 2022.
“Match round 16 will be the last set of matches played over the weekend of 12-13 November ahead of the call-up period for the tournament beginning on Monday 14 November.
“The League will resume on Boxing Day following the FIFA World Cup Final, which takes place on Sunday 18 December 2022.
“The final match round of the campaign will be played on 28 May 2023, when all games will kick off simultaneously as usual.”
Next season's dates have been confirmed ✅
The #PL season will start on 6 August 2022 and finish on May 28 2023.
There will be a mid-season break between 14 November and 26 December to accommodate the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022
Full statement: https://t.co/afQS2q9nbA pic.twitter.com/U9Ic2uCFgo
— Premier League (@premierleague) November 11, 2021
Premier League 22/23 & Qatar World Cup: A nightmare waiting to happen
The bid from Qatar has been questioned from day one by various countries as well as human rights authorities but FIFA has turned a blind eye to all those protests.
They were hell-bent to make this tournament a success and in a bid to do so they even decided to shift the competition to the winter.
And while the leagues across the globe have kind of backed this decision but we feel really bad for players who are being treated as mules by both clubs as well as FIFA.
Due to COVID, most of the European leagues gave a really short break to their players in 2020 and then this summer the European Championship was on.
All these players will get a two-odd month break next summer only to get ready for one of the weirdest seasons in modern football. Also, all the English teams regroup around 15 to 20 days before a new season commences so a lot of these players won’t even get to spend time with their families.
Players like Rashford had to delay his surgery in the summer because he was playing in the Euros while others like Harry Kane has been suffering from burnout.
Now imagine all the top players changing their mindset during the middle of a Premier League to go and play a global spectacle and within just eight days they have to reboot themselves and return to the domestic scene.