The 2022 World Cup should be played in November and December, but don’t worry — the final won’t ruin your Christmas holidays.
A FIFA task force has recommended that the tournament in Qatar be moved from its traditional June and July slot, but the organization’s secretary general, Jerome Valcke, has told CNN that the final won’t take place on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.
Football’s global governing body has been exploring ways to avoid playing the World Cup in the Gulf state during its scorching summer months.
The task force, headed by Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa, also suggested the 2022 competition should be shortened.
A final decision on when the tournament will be staged will be made at a meeting of FIFA’s executive committee between March 18 and 19.
The proposal to move football’s showpiece event to the European winter is likely to be met with disapproval by the continent’s top club teams.
“Yeah, very disappointed that’s the word, I think, on behalf of the all the European leagues and particularly the European clubs who provide most of the players for this World Cup,” said Richard Scudamore, chief executive of the English Premier League.
The month of December is traditionally hectic in the English Premier League with games scheduled throughout the month, but even in Spain’s La Liga, Germany’s Bundesliga, Italy’s Serie A and France’s Ligue 1, those leagues’ winter breaks don’t begin until well into December.
Those European winter months are also when the continent’s premier club competition, the Champions League, plays its group stages.
But UEFA, European football’s governing body, has supported the task force’s recommendation and said it would accommodate the proposed change by adjusting its competitions
“We are very pleased that, after careful consideration of the various opinions and detailed discussions with all stakeholders, we have identified what we believe to be the best solution for the 2018-2024 international match calendar and football in general,” Al-Khalifa said in a statement.
“It was a challenging task and I want to thank all members of the football community for their productive input and constructiveness in helping to find a solution that we believe can work for everyone.”
Across the pond, rescheduling the Cup also promises to create conflicts, as Fox has the TV rights to the 2018, 2022 and 2026 World Cups. November and December mark the latter parts of the extremely lucrative college and professional American football seasons, and Fox is one of three networks with rights to the National Football League through the 2022 season. The network has also been home to various college football games since 1998.
The National Basketball Association and college basketball seasons will also just be getting underway in November.
Qatar’s time zone is two to three hours ahead of Europe and eight hours ahead of the U.S. East Coast.