FIFA officially confirm dates for the 2022 World Cup (21st November - 18th December)

SharpshooterTom · 13 Jul 2018 at 18:10

The 2018 World Cup in Russia will live long in the memory, having been arguably the best edition since 1998.

However, after Sunday’s final between France and Croatia, fans will have to wait more than four years for the next instalment of football’s flagship competition.

On Friday Fifa announced the dates for the controversial 2022 World Cup which is to be held in Qatar - with the tournament to be held outside of the summer for the first ever time.

Qatar 2022 will start on November 21st and finish on December 18th - meaning it will cause serious disruption to the domestic football calendar in Europe.

The move is neccesitated by intense summer temperatures in Qatar, which can reach 40 degrees (c).

The 2022 World Cup will be the last involving 32 teams, before the competition is expanded to 48 in 2026 - which will be held in the USA, Mexico and Canada.

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/so...firm-dates-for-2022-qatar-world-cup-1.3564088

Yay can't wait for the scheduling chaos all domestic leagues in Europe will have undergo to accommodate this. A World Cup final a week before Christmas??

And as if that wasn't bonkers enough FIFA are now talking about potentially bringing forward the proposed 48 team expansion earlier for this tournament now instead.

Yes let's not have the inaugural 48 team World Cup in 2026 which covers an entire continent (USA, Canada and Mexico) and instead bring forward to Qatar in 2022 which is less than the size of Northern Ireland because they can obviously accommodate all 48 teams and fans. Genius move.

nicktay2605 · 13 Jul 2018 at 19:16

What a joke. As one of the newspaper articles pointed out today the disruption to clubs isn't going to be limited to one month. They'll then have to give players who reach the latter stages a couple of weeks off to recover from the strain of the competition.

robfosters · 13 Jul 2018 at 19:31

Utterly ridiculous. That’s gonna butcher domestic football. Utterly backward decision to give it to Qatar. Some top teams will be losing 9 or 10 first team players!

There should be mass protests about this. The voting was corrupted anyway.

I mean, this just beggars belief https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lis...grant_workers,_slavery_allegations_and_deaths

4K8KW10 · 13 Jul 2018 at 19:59

This is ridiculous - I knew they will make that stupid decision.
A smarter one would be to schedule it for April, 2022 - with all European leagues ending their seasons by March 15, 2022.

photo upload
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doha

robfosters · 13 Jul 2018 at 20:04

The temps are still too high to get a fair contest. I think this is one of the reasons this World Cup has been so good. The climate is nice and temperate. Suited everyone.

chroniclard · 13 Jul 2018 at 20:10

robfosters said:
The temps are still too high to get a fair contest. I think this is one of the reasons this World Cup has been so good. The climate is nice and temperate. Suited everyone.

Some of the games were played in 30+ degrees!

adam cool dude · 13 Jul 2018 at 20:12

The world cup is going to be on in horribly drizzly weather. Was so nice taking the telly outside and having BBQ with friends. This is going to be a massive joke. Most likely the premier league will run into June/July and players get a winter break as a result?

robfosters · 13 Jul 2018 at 20:13

chroniclard said:
Some of the games were played in 30+ degrees!

Not that many. Even if a few are, it’s much more preferable to Qatar, where every match will be played on hot coals. There were very few water breaks this World Cup. Each match will be stopping constantly for them over there. Talk about breaking up play.

4K8KW10 · 13 Jul 2018 at 20:23

robfosters said:
The temps are still too high to get a fair contest.

That's why they could schedule the games for the late afternoon/night hours, instead of noon hours :rolleyes:

April is perfectly fine.
A world champion should have some fitness qualities, too. Not like in Russia - they are playing at 15°C. WTH?!

robfosters · 13 Jul 2018 at 20:26

True. I just think it’s a complete joke to hold it there full stop. World Cup should always be in the (northern hemisphere) summer.

Malevolence · 13 Jul 2018 at 20:29

It doesn't sit right with me having the World Cup in a country that openly supports both Al-Qaeda (by way of al-Nusra Front) and ISIL. You know it's dodgy when the World's terrorist in chief (Saudi Arabia) calls you out on it and cuts all diplomatic ties. Then again, and I might come across as being ever so slightly cynical here, Qatar does play host to the largest US airbase in the Middle-East, so perhaps they get a free pass when it comes to supporting terrorists, much like Saudi Arabia does. And that's not even mentioning the slaves, the forced foreign labour and the many deaths of said slaves and forced labourers.

UTmaniac · 13 Jul 2018 at 21:49

Now wait for FIFA to tell European clubs they have to continue their fixture list without players on international duty, similar to cricket.

McBain · 13 Jul 2018 at 21:50

Absolute **** take.

4K8KW10 · 13 Jul 2018 at 22:02

UTmaniac said:
Now wait for FIFA to tell European clubs they have to continue their fixture list without players on international duty, similar to cricket.

And expect the clubs to declare a war against fifa. I don't believe how corrupt this organisation is.
Many of the largest football clubs rely on these players to win the leagues for them.
Imagine the crowd - how many will follow the leagues and how many the World cup if they happen at one and the same time?
Imagine empty stadiums in Qatar..

A tournament in November/December can still be hot or cold - depending on then current climate situation over the Arab peninsula.

Why didn't they give the tournament to Australia? :confused:

Cosimo · 14 Jul 2018 at 10:42

I can't believe all the disruption this will cause and why are we having this in that great football country which is yet another corrupt state that supports terror and forced labour.

It is time for all the European leagues and UEFA to tell FIFA where to stick their world cup and leave that corrupt organisation.

adam cool dude · 14 Jul 2018 at 11:13

Can the countries football associations boycott legally? If so that's what they should do. The Qatar bid was deemed illegal so why is it going ahead?

4K8KW10 · 15 Jul 2018 at 23:21

adam cool dude said:
Can the countries football associations boycott legally? If so that's what they should do. The Qatar bid was deemed illegal so why is it going ahead?

Because of money... loads of money.
Of course, any nation can boycott, there are qualifiers and if they decide they don't want to go there, just don't qualify to go there.

mattx2 · 15 Jul 2018 at 23:37

I dont care when they play this i wont be watching a second of it and I wonder how many big name players pick club over country and pull up with a hamstring injury 2 weeks before

Bickaxe · 16 Jul 2018 at 15:04

4K8KW10 said:
Why didn't they give the tournament to Australia?

TV Revenue at a guess, not many people will watch a match at 4am in Europe, pubs and such are unlikely to want to accommodate for that as nice as it would be to see it held there.

Hotwired · 16 Jul 2018 at 15:14

4K8KW10 said:
Because of money... loads of money.
Of course, any nation can boycott, there are qualifiers and if they decide they don't want to go there, just don't qualify to go there.

Is the stage being set for the most notorious world cup ever.

One the fans, the clubs and the players didn't want.