Winter World Cup .. How will it change the dates of the major leagues?
For the first time in history, the World Cup will be held in the winter, and the football season
will be divided into two halves, before and after the World Cup, unlike the usual, when the World Cup
was held after the end of the season in June.
But the most important question is, how will the football season be emptied in order to “accommodate”
the World Cup and its preparatory period, without being late for its end date in May and June?
To understand it in a comprehensive way, we have to look at match times, tournament schedules, and to
give an understandable example, we will use the English Premier League.
Start and end date
Initially, the start date of the Premier League, like other leagues, will be a week ahead of the start of August 6,
ahead of 2021 when it started on August 13.
The league will also end with a full week late, on May 28, while it ended in 2021 on May 22.
These two weeks will give space for the World Cup, as the first week is used for the gathering of teams
before the World Cup, and the second week will be used for the rest period after the World Cup final,
which lasts exactly 8 days.
While the World Cup itself will take place between November 25 and December 18, within 27 days.
International stop
The International Football Association (FIFA) was also able to solve the dilemma of the World Cup
period itself, which will “eat” 4 months of the football calendar.
That solution came by canceling the “international pause period”, in which players participate with their
national teams, in 4 periods, in September, October, November and January.
Each international break lasts 10 days, which means that 40 days go from the football calendar in
the international participation of the teams in the middle of the season, but they will now be available
for the World Cup itself.
With these two steps, a step to change the start and end dates of the leagues, and a step to cancel
the international break, FIFA was able to find a solution to hold the Winter World Cup in the middle
of the season, without postponing the league matches, or significantly affecting the season.
The World Cup itself will be shorter by four days, as it will end in 27 days instead of 31, giving an additional
4 days of rest.
This step was done by holding 4 matches in the group stage in one day, instead of the previous tournaments,
which were held 3 matches on one day.
All of these steps made the Winter World Cup possible, after it was a “frightening” idea for the football fans,
who did not know how the leagues would complete after the World Cup stopped.
How will it change the dates of the major leagues?
