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WEEKLY WHINE

How to squeeze Qatar into the calendar

Recently, there has been much talk about the 2022 Men’s World Cup to be held in Qatar. In particular, should it be held in JUN-JUL 2022 to maintain consistency with the established norms? Or should FIFA think outside the box and move the tournament to a different time of year?

Well, FIFA, UEFA, and the international footballing community are gradually realising that it might be bad for business if fans spontaneously combusted as soon as they step out of doors. We have therefore seen both the European Club Association and UEFA announce their support for a winter Men’s World Cup in the last two weeks.

But how would we accomplish this, and how much would it disrupt the international calendar? You will no doubt recall our recent proposal for the GoobNet International Timetable and Schedule for Advancing World Football and Unifying Leagues. Let us now take a moment to examine the period leading up to the 2022 Men’s World Cup and see how it fits into our proposal.

APPROACH

First, we had to determine when to hold the tournament. Both JAN-FEB 2022 and DEC 2022 have been proposed. We will take the worst case of JAN-FEB 2022, because it will be more disruptive to move the Men’s World Cup earlier in the year than later.

We then had to decide on the specific dates. We have settled on FRI 21 JAN-SUN 21 FEB 2022, which means that players must be released to their national teams no later than FRI 07 JAN 2022. Players may therefore still celebrate the late December holiday season before joining their national teams. Likewise, England may still participate in its long tradition of overworking its players with the Boxing Day fixtures and New Year’s FA Cup matches.

This will also affect the qualifiers, of course. To allow at least six months of preparation time for the qualified teams, the qualifiers must complete by the international dates of JUN 2021. The six international dates in SEP-NOV 2021 become friendly dates as a consequence.

But how are we going to finish the qualifiers that early? One approach would be to maintain the same total of twenty match dates by converting the friendly dates of FEB-MAR 2020 into qualifier dates and holding Men’s World Cup qualifiers on the international dates of NOV 2019. However, this would disrupt preparations for the continental championships, because these tournaments’ qualifiers would have to finish in OCT 2019.

The alternative approach would be for each confederation to devise qualifying formats that require fewer matchdays. This would be easy to do, because our proposed qualifying format allocates two group phases for CONCACAF, CAF, and the AFC/​OFC tournament. Eliminating the semifinal group phase and replacing it with a second elimination phase would reduce the total requirement to 16 matchdays rather than 20. However, CONMEBOL would almost certainly be opposed to this; the marathon single group qualifying campaign has become quite popular.

Either way, we must rearrange some of the match dates. Because the intercontinental playoffs are on the last two dates, the teams must have some lead time to arrange their travel. We have therefore moved two of the four dates of JUN 2021 back two months. Therefore, the final round in each confederation will complete in APR 2021, two months before the playoffs.

PROPOSED CALENDAR

We have therefore devised an approach that accommodates the 2022 Men’s World Cup in JAN-FEB 2022. There are still twenty match dates available for the qualifiers, starting in NOV 2019, although we encourage the confederations to consider alternative qualifying formats that would begin in 2020.

Below is how our proposed calendar would look for the 2018-22 period.

01Friendly date
01Qualifier date
01Release period for international tournaments
01Confederation championships
01Men’s World Cup
AUG 2018
MTWTFSS
  0102030405
06070809101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  
SEP 2018
MTWTFSS
     0102
03040506070809
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
OCT 2018
MTWTFSS
01020304050607
08091011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031    
NOV 2018
MTWTFSS
   01020304
05060708091011
12131415161718
19202122232425
2627282930  
DEC 2018
MTWTFSS
     0102
03040506070809
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31      
JAN 2019
MTWTFSS
 010203040506
07080910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031   
FEB 2019
MTWTFSS
    010203
04050607080910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728   
MAR 2019
MTWTFSS
    010203
04050607080910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031
APR 2019
MTWTFSS
01020304050607
08091011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930     
MAY 2019
MTWTFSS
  0102030405
06070809101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  
JUN 2019
MTWTFSS
     0102
03040506070809
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
JUL 2019
MTWTFSS
01020304050607
08091011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031    
AUG 2019
MTWTFSS
   01020304
05060708091011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031 
SEP 2019
MTWTFSS
      01
02030405060708
09101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
30      
OCT 2019
MTWTFSS
 010203040506
07080910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031   
NOV 2019
MTWTFSS
    010203
04050607080910
11121314151617
18192021222324
252627282930 
DEC 2019
MTWTFSS
      01
02030405060708
09101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031     
JAN 2020
MTWTFSS
  0102030405
06070809101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  
FEB 2020
MTWTFSS
     0102
03040506070809
10111213141516
17181920212223
242526272829 
MAR 2020
MTWTFSS
      01
02030405060708
09101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031     
APR 2020
MTWTFSS
  0102030405
06070809101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
27282930   
MAY 2020
MTWTFSS
    010203
04050607080910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031
JUN 2020
MTWTFSS
01020304050607
08091011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930     
JUL 2020
MTWTFSS
  0102030405
06070809101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  
AUG 2020
MTWTFSS
     0102
03040506070809
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31      
SEP 2020
MTWTFSS
 010203040506
07080910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
282930    
OCT 2020
MTWTFSS
   01020304
05060708091011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031 
NOV 2020
MTWTFSS
      01
02030405060708
09101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
30      
DEC 2020
MTWTFSS
 010203040506
07080910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031   
JAN 2021
MTWTFSS
    010203
04050607080910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031
FEB 2021
MTWTFSS
01020304050607
08091011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
MAR 2021
MTWTFSS
01020304050607
08091011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031    
APR 2021
MTWTFSS
   01020304
05060708091011
12131415161718
19202122232425
2627282930  
MAY 2021
MTWTFSS
     0102
03040506070809
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31      
JUN 2021
MTWTFSS
 010203040506
07080910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
282930    
JUL 2021
MTWTFSS
   01020304
05060708091011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031 
AUG 2021
MTWTFSS
      01
02030405060708
09101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031     
SEP 2021
MTWTFSS
  0102030405
06070809101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
27282930   
OCT 2021
MTWTFSS
    010203
04050607080910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031
NOV 2021
MTWTFSS
01020304050607
08091011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930     
DEC 2021
MTWTFSS
  0102030405
06070809101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  
JAN 2022
MTWTFSS
     0102
03040506070809
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31      
FEB 2022
MTWTFSS
 010203040506
07080910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28      
MAR 2022
MTWTFSS
 010203040506
07080910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031   
APR 2022
MTWTFSS
    010203
04050607080910
11121314151617
18192021222324
252627282930 
MAY 2022
MTWTFSS
      01
02030405060708
09101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031     
JUN 2022
MTWTFSS
  0102030405
06070809101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
27282930   
JUL 2022
MTWTFSS
    010203
04050607080910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031

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