Why a winter World Cup in 2022 is shaping up to give England a chance to be champions
, 8 January 2014
OPINION BY MARTINLIPTON
Chief football writer Martin Lipton says a Premier League mid-season break, the scrapping of FA Cup replays and a move to a cooler time of year will all help
GettyThe Umm-Salal Stadium is going to have 45.120 seats and will be used by the local football club Umm-Salal F.C. as their home ground after the the World Cup.Field of dreams? Will Qatar end England's 56 years of hurt?
The traditionalists will be up in arms. Of course they will.
A winter World Cup? Scandalous. Final proof that FIFA is a beast that has eaten itself.
The end of FA Cup replays? Betrayal of a heritage. Nobody cares about history any more.
January break? Outrageous. The fans are being stabbed in the back, again.
Yet, come November 2022, when England – hopefully – set off for Qatar it might yet be different. They might actually have a chance.
It was Michel Platini, demonised by the Premier League as the Great Deceiver, who nevertheless voiced the truest estimation of England and English football.
“The English are like lions in the autumn,” said the UEFA president. “But like lambs in the spring.”
For Platini, the reasons were simple. The sheer unrelenting demands of the most physical league in world football have to take their toll.
In June, after 10 months of non-stop action, where referees allow far more to go without punishment, English players need a break, not a tournament.
Listen to the last coach to take an England side to the World Cup, Fabio Capello.
“It is always the same problem,” the Italian said last month. “Physically they are good in September, October, November. March? So-so. May? No!”
No indeed, although Capello has to take responsibility for his side being more mice than even lambs in South Africa in 2010.
Yet assuming there is action to greet the words mouthed by FA chairman Greg Dyke when he announced the formation of his commission to find the way forward, then his target of glory in Qatar might have been made a little more possible.
Dyke did not endear himself to Roy Hodgson by his “throat-slitting” gesture after England were pulled out alongside Italy, Uruguay and Costa Rica for the group phase in Brazil.
He had already done Hodgson few favours in conceding nobody was expecting a triumphant return from Rio in mid-July.
Many, too, laughed at Dyke when he stood at Millbank in September and stated: “I want to set the whole of English football two targets. The first is for the England team to at least reach the semi- finals of the European Championship in 2020 and the second is for us to win the World Cup in 2022.”
Optimistic? Of course. But a decade ago nobody would have seriously bought the idea that Spain would be world football’s dominant force.
Things can change.
GettySpanish players celebrate after winning the Euro 2012 football championships final match Spain vs ItalyOn top of the world: Spain rule now but it was different a decade ago
Of course, FIFA have forced themselves into a huge corner over Qatar, although in this case Sepp Blatter, who voted for Australia and then the USA, is not the most guilty party.
The reality is that the chosen venue for 2022 is utterly unsuitable – while you can air-condition the stadia, you simply cannot air-condition an entire country.
And that’s even before human rights, slave labour, intolerance of homosexuality and the country’s unwillingness to acknowledge the existence of Israel are discussed.
What has forced the inevitable decision are legal concerns over the threat from Qatar if the tournament is taken away. But that will only happen if FIFA’s investigations chief, US lawyer Michael J Garcia, finds proof of corruption.
FIFA is worried, too, about the health and safety of players and supporters.
UEFA president Platini’s idea of a January tournament – leaving the Champions League timetable intact – is a non-starter because of a clash with the Winter Olympics and America's Super Bowl.
Unsurprisingly, the Premier League - unwilling to see a threat to its Christmas programme - has fought its corner, which saw criticisms of Dyke for “giving in too easily” when the Wembley boss accepted the inevitable, much as he is opposed to the idea.
Now, though, Richard Scudamore, too has gone with the flow. For him, a mid-November start date is the least-worst alternative - and an opportunity for leverage, too, over the domestic calendar.
The Premier League will enter negotiations if it ends up with more weekend dates. The payback? The FA Cup becoming a midweek competition, with no replays.
Yet what is a mess, created by a decision that was avowedly wrong, for every reasoned thinker, from the moment it was made, could yet give England a better chance.
The players will only be three or four months into the campaign, with energy still left in their legs, while the pitch conditions will be perfect for high-intensity football.
In short - a chance for England to be Desert Lions in winter. To be able to play an English, all-action game; a variant on the German model.
All we need, now, is for the players to be good enough, for the work of the Commission, St George’s Park and the Elite Player Performance Plan to bear fruit. And for Roy, Gareth, or whoever is supping from the Poisoned Chalice in 2022, to be sure we actually qualify.
That’s quite key, too.
How a winter 2022 World Cup might work...
2019 July - World Cup qualifying draw for all Confederations except Asia, which will have started its campaign in the June.
2020 September - European qualification begins.
2021 November - Normal end of qualification process, coinciding with Confederations Cup in Qatar.
2022 May - European season ends as usual. Players get a month off.
July - Champions League qualifiers and mid-month start of major European leagues including Premier League.
August - European transfer window closes two weeks early. Champions League group stage begins on August 23.
September - Start of Euro 2024 qualifiers plus two Champions League weeks.
October - More Euro 2024 qualifiers and two more Champions League/Europa League weeks.
November 1/2 - Final Champions League/Europa League group fixtures.
November 4 - Mandatory release of players two weeks before World Cup, including pre-tournament friendlies. No club football.
November 18 - World Cup kicks off.
December 2 - Group stage ends with one day before start of knock-out phase.
December 4 - Last 16 round, squeezed into three days rather than a week.
December 9/10 - Quarter-finals.
December 13/14 - Semi-finals.
December 18 - World Cup Final.
December 26 - Premier League football returns with Boxing Day fixtures and the traditional Christmas programme.
2023 January 8 - FA Cup third round (all games one-off) before a two-week winter break.
March - Champions League/Europa League knockout-stage begins.
June - End of Premier League and other European leagues, UEFA finals.
August - Premier League season starts as usual after a two-month break.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/winter-world-cup-2022-england-3002280
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