The 2022 FIFA World Cup is around the corner and the plans for the tournament might affect the flow of the 2022-2023 Premier League season.
The 2022 FIFA World Cup is scheduled to take place in Qatar from November 21 to December 18. And FIFA has directed all football clubs to release players to the national teams participating in the tournament latest on November 14, 2022.
Based on FIFA directives, the Premier League like many other leagues in the world might be forced to go on seven weeks break to give room for the FIFA World Cup.
To present the plans of the Premier League for the 2022-2023 season to the league clubs, representatives of the clubs met in London on Wednesday, September 22, 2021.
During the meeting, executives from the Premier League clubs were informed that the 2022-2023 Premier League season would be put on hold after the weekend of November 12 and resume on December 26, 2022.
To make up for the break, the league body has decided to start the 2022-2023 season earlier than usual. Based on the new arrangement, the 2022-2023 season will start on August 6, and end later than usual on May 28, 2023.
It is not only domestic leagues that will be affected by the FIFA World Cup which will take place in winter instead of the usual summer. The UEFA Champions League and the FA Cup will be affected too.
In the 2022-2023 season, UEFA will stage the Champions League final in June instead of May and the FA Cup final will also take place in June 2023.
To achieve this, UEFA is reportedly planning to complete the 2022-2023 UEFA Champions League group stage at least a week before the commencement of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Based on this, footballers might have to play more games within very short intervals just like in the final part of the 2019-2020 season.
Aston Villa chief executive Christian Purslow is not happy
In reaction to how the 2022-2023 Premier League season would be distorted due to the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Aston Villa chief executive Christian Purslow described the decision to host the World Cup in winter as a crazy idea.
He projected that the Premier League might experience up to five weeks break at a very important period of the season due to the winter World Cup.
“Next season when we play in an equally crazy idea, which is a winter World Cup, we won’t see any Premier League football at the peak of our season between November and December, which is something that people are going to have to get used to”, the football executive said.
“These are decisions that get taken a long time ago. They bite, quite soon. Next season we’ll all see that.
“I always have concerns about player welfare but I have more concerns for our fans missing Premier League football in the winter for five weeks, which is our great national tradition and our great national heritage.”
Biennial FIFA World Cup: UEFA wants FIFA to stop campaigning for the new system
The European football governing body, UEFA, has urged the world football governing body, FIFA, to stop promoting the proposed introduction of the biennial FIFA World Cup.
Recall that FIFA, through former Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger, is trying to introduce a new system in which the FIFA World Cup will be held once in two years instead of once in four years.
On its part, UEFA feels the plan would disrupt club football, congest the football calendar, and add more burden on players.
Earlier in the week, FIFA announced that the football governing body has entered a new phase in its effort to introduce the biennial FIFA World Cup.
In reaction to that, UEFA said: “These are just some of the serious concerns that the FIFA proposal provokes at first glance and they cannot be dispelled simply with unsubstantiated promotional slogans on the supposed benefits of a thicker calendar for final tournaments.
“In this phase, the respect for a consultation process with the stakeholders – which should be unbiased – would suggest abstaining from promotional campaigns of unilaterally pre-determined concepts that nobody has been given the possibility to see in detail and which have wide-ranging, often unexpected, effects.”
