Mar 25, 2021

  • Mark OgdenSenior Writer, ESPN FC

The race to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar has at present begun with the qualification entrada underway beyond the globe. Next Th, April 1, marks the 600-day countdown to the start of tournament on November. 21, 2022, and the menses in betwixt promises to be hectic and congested for many of the earth's top players.

While the impact of the coronavirus pandemic has placed unprecedented demands on players due to the congested nature of this season, the workload is only likely to intensify in the weeks and months until the showtime of Qatar 2022.

- UEFA WC qualifiers on ESPN+: Stream LIVE games, replays (U.S)
- How 2022 World Cup qualifying works around the world

The major leagues, national associations and continental confederations have notwithstanding to agree on a agenda that will enable the 2022-23 club season to contain a half-dozen-week suspension for the World Loving cup to accept place, while the knock-on effect of the pandemic has created incertitude over the prospect of clubs embarking on lucrative preseason tours in the summer of 2022. Just, however the key issues are resolved, the men in the middle will be the star players who are expected to perform in domestic leagues and cups, European competitions and international fixtures.

One matter for certain is that the 2022 World Cup, because of its November-December schedule, volition take a huge impact on football in the years ahead. So what can players and fans expect?

Why is Qatar 2022 having such an impact on the agenda?

When Qatar was announced as the winning bid to host the 2022 Earth Cup back in 2010, it was awarded on the basis of the tournament beingness staged in June and July, as with every previous tournament. Only concerns over the searing summer temperatures in the Middle East, which boilerplate 41.2 degrees Celsius (106.2 Fahrenheit) in June, prompted FIFA to motility the World Cup to November-Dec.

That determination immediately created a major trouble for the social club game, especially in Europe, with the season traditionally played from August to May. The last two months of the year are a busy fourth dimension with plenty of domestic games and group fixtures in the Champions League and Europa League.

With Qatar 2022 running from Nov. 21 to Dec. 18, 2022, the club game faces a shutdown of at least half-dozen weeks -- a week before the tournament for preparation and a week afterward for players to recover -- so the 2022-23 season must somehow exist reconfigured to enable the club game and the World Cup to be concluded every bit smoothly as possible. But the ripple effect of dropping a World Cup into the middle of a club season will touch both the beginning and cease engagement of the 2022-23 flavor and potentially the beginning of the 2023-24 entrada.

What will a player's workload look similar between now and the Earth Cup?

Players have different demands in different leagues, just the top stars tin look to play betwixt 55-60 games a flavor if their club is successful. And so you accept international fixtures. In 2019-twenty, co-ordinate to Transfermarkt, Manchester United helm Harry Maguire played more minutes than any other role player in the world, clocking up 5,509 minutes in 61 games for club and land last season. FC Copenhagen defender Victor Nelsson came 2d, with five,366 minutes.

United reached the semifinals in three competitions last flavor, which helped Maguire make so many appearances, simply with the likes of Manchester City and Bayern Munich also regularly going deep in all competitions, height players could play more than 100 games each for lodge and state between at present and the start of the World Loving cup. But they will then take to play in the tournament -- the peak of many players' career -- and render for the 2d half of the 2022-23 flavor. And if you play for a squad like Bayern, United or Urban center, players can expect to travel to Asia or North America in summertime 2022 on a preseason tour, which will only add to their game fourth dimension.

And then what are the solutions?

If there are solutions out there, the rival factions -- FIFA, clubs, national associations, continental confederations -- are yet to agree on them.

One obvious answer would exist to simply start the 2022-23 order flavour at the commencement of August and extend it until early June, giving clubs additional time to play their fixtures and overcome the bear on of a 4-half-dozen week break in November and December.

Simply UEFA has already scheduled the 2023 Champions League final for May 27 in Munich, ane 24-hour interval earlier than the date for the 2022 final in Saint Petersburg, so at that place is little sign of UEFA extending their flavour to allow for the disruption caused by the World Cup. UEFA will too lose two Champions League/Europa League match days to the World Loving cup, then when will they be staged? We are still awaiting an answer.

And in terms of national leagues, sources accept told ESPN that discussions are nevertheless ongoing in terms of a get-go date and end engagement, but while information technology seems straightforward to cram in the European fixtures over a shorter period of fourth dimension as has been washed this season, it would not solve the problem of finding infinite for four-6 weeks of league games that would need to be moved for the World Cup

Has the pandemic added to the problem?

Yes. The CONMEBOL World Loving cup qualifiers in South America began last October, but a full circular of qualifiers has been postponed this month due to travel restrictions forcing Europe-based players to stay with their clubs. Those fixtures are likely to be played next flavour, with the delayed Copa America expected to have place this summertime, a yr after being postponed considering of the pandemic.

- Vickery: CONMEBOL's bizarre conclusion to press on with total Copa

In Europe, Euro 2020 is also due to become ahead this June and July, then what was due to be a free summer for players will now exist busy with ii major tournaments, plus the delayed Olympics in Tokyo, which will involve major nations such equally Frg, France, Spain, Argentina and Brazil. The pandemic, and filibuster in staging the Euros, Copa and Olympics, has hit the revenue streams of top clubs, who volition miss out on a money-spinning summertime tours for the second successive year, making information technology a fiscal necessity to cash in next summertime.

So the impact on the 2021-22 flavor is however unknown, but any rollover from this campaign will inevitably add to the congestion and demands of next twelvemonth.

What do the clubs recall?

Sources at a number of high-profile clubs have told ESPN that the scheduling of the 2022 World Cup is unhelpful and an inconvenience, but something that they accept no selection only to accept. Withal, sources take besides said that clubs volition hold onto players until the latest possible departure engagement for Qatar, potentially using them for league fixtures just a calendar week before the Earth Cup begins. Similarly, players could find themselves back in club action just days later on the Earth Cup ends, which could be challenging for players who reach the semifinals and final.

International coaches often take the benefit of a lengthy build-up to a major tournament, with grooming camps and friendly games scheduled for training, simply that is unlikely to happen in 2022. Expect clubs to insist that the World Cup fits in around their demands rather than the other way around.

The European Order Association (ECA), which includes Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United, Liverpool and other major teams, initially urged FIFA to stage the tournament in April-May 2022 before the conclusion was made to move to November-Dec. Having lost that boxing, the clubs and UEFA blocked FIFA president Gianni Infantino's attempts to enlarge Qatar 2022 to 48 teams from 32, in order to avoid further games for their players.

Will football game adopt Arsene Wenger's programme for a unified calendar?

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Wenger: Wintertime World Cup makes sense

Armory managing director Arsene Wenger said it makes sense to concur the 2022 Qatar World Cup in the winter months, just admitted information technology will have an bear upon on European league schedules.

Arsene Wenger, the one-time Arsenal manager, is now FIFA's chief of global development and he recently proposed an overhaul of the football calendar that would see a unified flavor from March to November.

"I'yard convinced that to harmonise the earth agenda, somebody has to requite in and it'southward Europe or the rest of the earth," Wenger said. "It would make things more simple."

In an ideal globe, the simplicity of Wenger's plan would solve the problem, only arguably the biggest reason for moving Qatar 2022 to November-Dec was the summer climate and the aforementioned would apply to many leagues in Europe, with the rut in likes of Spain, French republic, Greece and Russia making it unfeasible to play club games. It would be a similar problem in large parts of Africa and Asia.

The plan would also encounter teams in the southern hemisphere having to play through harsh wintertime weather, and then the proposal falls downward on the issue of climate. So shifting the football game flavor from March to November would not solve the Qatar 2022 problem, even if it could exist imposed in such a short space of fourth dimension.

Is anyone thinking about the demands on the players?

Leading players are becoming increasingly vocal on a range of issues, but and then far, there have been no concerns raised nigh the workload between now and Qatar 2022. Players tend to want to play, merely coaches are oft the ones to speak upward near the demands beingness placed on their squad.

Earlier this flavor, England manager Gareth Southgate said that the issue over the football calendar around Qatar had not been addressed, merely he called on coaches to be given an input.

"I would hope that within all the discussions that coaches are consulted," Southgate said. "It doesn't have to be me, but mayhap coaches of the big clubs, possibly all the national managers, whatsoever it might be. But by and large speaking, a lot of the decisions are made without the input of coaches."

And so when volition we have a confirmed road map for football into Qatar 2022?

That continues to exist an unanswered question. The challenge of dealing with the COVID-nineteen pandemic has understandably taken the focus away from the need to plan the calendar ahead of Qatar 2022, merely sources accept said that a resolution is unlikely until afterward this year, well into the 2021-22 season.

Merely it's safe to say that the side by side 2 years volition be busier than always for the world'due south meridian footballers.

Qatar has been a controversial choice of host from the start, and then what will information technology be similar in 2022?

FIFA has inverse the selection process for Globe Cups since 2010, when the hosts of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups were decided, with the voting of Russia and Qatar's successful bids both mired in allegations of corruption. Now, every football nation gets to vote on the potential host for future tournaments rather than 22 FIFA Executive Committee members.

But aside from the controversy over the tournament existence moved from its usual June-July slot in the agenda, Qatar has as well been under the microscope for the handling of migrant workers who accept helped build many of the new stadia in the country since 2010. Co-ordinate to a report in the Guardian final month, more than 6,500 migrant workers accept died in Qatar during that time.

Responding to the Guardian report, Qatar'southward authorities said a "very small-scale per centum" of over i.four one thousand thousand expatriates in the state had died between 2011 and 2019.

The government's statement said information technology had taken steps to improve health and safety of workers in the last two decades and had imposed punishments on business owners who violated safety standards.

Homosexuality is an illegal offence in Qatar that can carry a prison judgement, and there has been widespread condemnation of the Gulf state'due south human rights record, with Kingdom of norway's players wearing T-shirts bearing the slogan "Human rights on and off the pitch" prior to Wednesday'south Globe Cup qualifier against Gibraltar.

When asked about Qatar's position on homosexuality by ESPN in 2019, Hassan al Thawadi, the secretary general of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy for Qatar 2022, said: "Nosotros are a conservative people and we ask visitors to appreciate our culture while at the same fourth dimension accepting our hospitality. Open displays of amore are not function of our culture and nosotros ask that people don't [openly brandish affection]."

The international scrutiny of Qatar will only increase as the tournament approaches, and is likely to overshadow the host nation during the effect itself like no other World Cup earlier it.