The Qatar 2022 edition of the FIFA World Cup will be the first to be held during the winter season.
The English Football Association (FA) have asked the Premier League to change the dates of the matches between “the Big Six” to not be scheduled on the weekend before the World Cup starts.
England manager Gareth Southgate is concerned about the eight-day gap between the end of the domestic season and the start of the Qatari tournament, with the Three Lions facing Iran in Doha on November 21.
According to ESPN, the FA have requested that no games between Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal and Tottenham are staged in the final weekend of games before the World Cup.
The Football Association has reportedly requested that no matches between the Premier League’s ‘Big Six’ clubs are staged the weekend before the start of the World Cup.
The Premier League has asked that no games be played between Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal, and Tottenham on Nov. 12-13.
Fixtures for the Premier League are generated at random through a system developed by Atos — a digital company used since the league’s inception in 1992 — but subjected to certain “golden rules.”
For policing reasons, no team can play more than two consecutive home or away matches, and two clubs in close proximity in the same city — for example, Everton and Liverpool or City and United — cannot both play at home on the same day.
The FA, who lament the FIFA World Cup‘s unusual scheduling in the middle of the regular season, propose a one-off “golden rule” for the tournament.
