The World Cup yes, but English football is not ready for all the sacrifices. The English first division championship, the Premier League, has announced its schedule for the 2022-2023 season. And it promises to be particularly dense.
With the World Cup in Qatar from November 21 to December 18, an international period will impose a winter break of unprecedented proportions for European divisions. The Premier League will end on November 13 and resume on December 26, just over a week before and after the World Cup. Among the other important dates of the season, the championship will start on August 6, and end on May 28, 2023.
Next season’s dates have been confirmed ✅
Tea #PL season will start on 6 August 2022 and finish on May 28 2023.
There will be a mid-season break between 14 November and 26 December to accommodate the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022
Full statement: https://t.co/afQS2q9nbA pic.twitter.com/U9Ic2uCFgo
– Premier League (@premierleague) November 11, 2021
The “PL” followed in the footsteps of the Professional Football League, which also anticipated its schedule on October 13th. The Ligue 1 took over the English boxing day, with a recovery by a multiplex in the middle of the week, Wednesday, December 28. The Premier League has gone even further, maintaining its traditional day during the holiday season, from December 26. For the digestion of the log, we will iron; for the physical freshness of players playing across the Channel as well.
This infernal sequence is made necessary by the World Cup played in Qatar during the winter, in order to limit the high temperatures observed in summer (35 ° on average, maximums around 40 °), the season in which traditionally takes place the most. major international football meeting. In addition to the World Cup, the championships must also undergo the calendar pressure of the European Cups – Champions League, Europa League, Europa League Conference – which will also have to stop during the World Cup.
This 2022-2023 season is already raising fears of the worst for the physical integrity of the players selected for the World Cup. Without real physical conditioning for lack of time, and with the inevitable sequence of matches, the bodies will be put to the test. Also forgotten, the traditional tactical preparation, reduced to nothing by these too short timings, and which could severely penalize the selections which have not already been broken in at the start of the season.
This unprecedented and worrying situation is already seeing the Premier League get annoyed. In a press release issued following the announcement of the dates of the season, the English championship collegially announces that its “20 clubs have discussed the process of reforming the calendar after 2024 and unanimously oppose FIFA’s proposal for a World Cup played every two years by the men’s teams.“
“The Premier League is committed to preventing any drastic changes to the FIFA international match schedule that would harm the well-being of players and threaten the competitiveness, schedule, structures and traditions of domestic competitionss “added Richard Masters, general manager of the championship.