Premier League games to be held just nine days before start of 2022 World Cup – report

The tournament will be hosted in the winter months for the first time and is due to kick off on November 21, 2022.

A report in the Mail Online claims that draft proposals drawn up by the Premier League include plans to play games little over a week before the start of the World Cup.

The English top flight and Championship are both set to have a round of fixtures on November 12, nine days before the tournament gets underway.

Additionally, the plans include a return to league action on Boxing Day, just eight days after the World Cup final.

The intention is to keep disruption of the league calendar to a minimum.

A two-week winter break, which will be introduced for the first time this season, is set to be scrapped in 2022/23 before being re-introduced the following year.

And the domestic football season in the top two divisions will start a week earlier and finish a week later to make up for lost time.

Such a schedule is likely to irritate Premier League clubs, as they would likely have to play some games without their international stars, who could be occupied on pre-World Cup training camps.

However, the report says that the reaction of clubs to the proposals has been positive and they will be discussed at a shareholder’s meeting in November.

The decision was made to play the World Cup in November and December for the first time due to the high temperatures over the summer months in Qatar.

UEFA has revealed that a decision on the schedule of the Champions League and Europa League during the affected season won’t be made until 2021, while League One and League Two are expected to be unchanged.  

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