2022 Qatar Winter World Cup: How Might Leagues Adjust Their Schedules?

Since that fateful day in 2011 when FIFA decided to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, everything that’s emanated from that future tournament has been nothing short of awful. From the seemingly corrupt bidding process, to the unabashed use of modern-day slave labor, to wide-spread intolerance, to the fact it’s well over 100 degrees during the summer months in Qatar, the tournament is looked at with jaundiced eyes by Americans.

The final turd in the 2022 punch bowl appears to be ready to drop, with FIFA’s task force all but assuring the tournament will be moved from the summer months to November-December, which confirm Grant Wahl’s report from last week. Maybe, just maybe, people in position of power within the FIFA bureaucracy are so blind to their own ignorance that they truly didn’t realize a World Cup staged in the summer months in the desert was a bad idea.

They didn’t realize it was ridiculously warm in Qatar during June in July, as they were blinded staring at all the diamonds encrusted on a $30,000 gift watch.

Bar a last minute change of heart or a total rebellion by leading European club leagues, the winter World Cup is going to happen. English FA chairman Greg Dyke gave the decision a ringing endorsement, calling it, “the best of the bad options.” FIFA floated the idea of beginning the 2022 tournament on Nov. 19 and running through Dec. 23. The final could also be staged on Dec. 18 because, god forbid, something interrupts the most sacred day on the soccer calendar — England’s Boxing Day fixtures. (Let’s make the assumption England won’t be participating in the final or third place game, so it’s players will be available for their respective clubs.)

Long story short, moving the tournament to the fall/winter is going to be a massive clusterfuck across the world of club soccer. The good news is we’ll have seven years to figure out how to salvage the 2022/2022-23 club seasons and the temperatures in Qatar should only be in the mid-80s. The bad news? Given what we know about the people running soccer the ensuing seven years will likely consist of petty bickering — the top European clubs already want compensation for moving their schedules — than sound, reasonable solutions.

For comparison, the 2014 World Cup ran from June 12-July 13. Most National Teams involved had a solid three weeks to a month to prepare ahead of the tournament, through training and pre-World Cup friendlies. The 2013-14 English Premier League season, as an example, ended on May 11 (it began on August 17). The Champions League final between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid took place on May 24.

At minimum we’ll see almost all European leagues start earlier, either at the beginning of August or late July. This will impact the previous season, as well. Chances are, we’ll see play resume across most leagues during the final week of the 2022 World Cup when only four teams are remaining. This is an imperfect solution, but club teams impacted will have to live with it.

Let’s take a look at some pertinent leagues affected by a winter World Cup:

MLS

Predicting what MLS will look like in seven year’s time is a fool’s errand. As much as Jurgen Klinsmann wants it, odds are MLS will not have shifted to a European calendar and will still run from March to early December, when the playoffs conclude. The 2015 MLS regular season runs through October. Last summer MLS didn’t break and played through the World Cup. Given the trend of U.S. internationals coming back to MLS, odds are the league isn’t going to want to contest its players concurrently with the World Cup for numerous reasons, so adjustments will need to be made, such as starting the 2022 season in February or playing more than once a week so the regular season is over by the end of September.

Who knows what the landscape of MLS or the USMNT will look like in 2022, but a World Cup after the season will either mean American players are worn out and fatigued or game-ready.

EPL

There’s no way the EPL can run at the same time as the World Cup, unless clubs decide to collectively field reserve teams — English clubs provided the most players to the 2014 World Cup with 119. Unlike the rest of Europe, England ratchets up the amount of games around the Christmas/New Year’s holidays (TV C.R.E.A.M., duh). The EPL will likely start closer to Aug 1. and run later into May or June to accommodate the World Cup, but would you put it past the powers that be running the WORLD’S MOST POPULAR LEAGUE to try to cram in those holiday fixtures right after the World Cup?

Continental European Leagues

Most European leagues will have a little more wiggle room to manipulate their schedules due to built-in winter breaks. For instance Italy’s Serie A was off for about two weeks from Dec. 19-Jan. 5. The German Bundesliga takes off in late December and doesn’t resume until late January. There’s time on the schedule to accommodate the World Cup, but that means playing games in less than ideal conditions. It would definitely be odd for a player to go to Qatar and play for 2-3 weeks in 85+ degree weather and come back to his club team in Germany when it’s barely above freezing.

UEFA Champions League

Qualifying for the 2022-23 Champions League probably now has to start in June, right after the club season ends. This year’s group stage ran from Sept. 16 to Dec. 10 and didn’t resume until Feb. 17 for the knockout rounds. Moving the group stage up to August isn’t a terrible solution. The question is going to be, what happens to the best players from the World Cup who presumably play at the best European club teams. These elite players are playing in 5+ games at the World Cup (some that could go 120 minutes) over a short period, then the club season resumes and they’re back to the Champions League shortly after that? We can laugh, but FIFA may need to compensate the clubs or help pick up insurance tabs because high-level players are going to be ground to a pulp with this scheduling change.

Miscellaneous

The January 2023 transfer window will be insane, since we won’t get the tradition post-World Cup summer spending spree. … One potential positive of a winter World Cup is European-based players will be healthier during the tournament, as mentioned above their fitness post-World Cup when the club season resumes could get ugly. … We’re seven full years away from the tournament and this Wikipedia page of 2022 controversies is already thousands of words in length. Great job, everybody!

[Photos via Getty]