The World Cup in Qatar, set to begin on November 20, will mark the first time that the global showpiece has been held in West Asia, which has necessitated a change in the dates for the competition.
Fifa had to move the event from its traditional timing of June and July — usually the summer off-season in Europe — to November and December, allowing for the tournament to be played when temperatures are more bearable in Qatar.
What it meant was league administrators had to rejig the calendar for their respective domestic competitions as well. The Telegraph looks at what the leagues have done with their schedules to accommodate the World Cup:
Premier League
The 2022-23 EPL season began on August 5, a week earlier than the 2021-22 start date, and it will finish a week later than in 2022, on May 28, 2023. The teams will play until the November 12-13 weekend, after which the competition will break for the Qatar showpiece.
Arsenal, who play on Saturday, will look to cement their place on top of the league, while Manchester City, who take on Brentford at home earlier that day, would try to keep the gap to two points.
The EPL season will resume on December 26, eight days after the World Cup final.
La Liga
Spanish sides started the 2022- 23 season on August 12, the same weekend as they did in 2021. The league paused after the midweek round on November 9-10 with Barcelona sitting on top of the points table, five clear of champions Real Madrid who have a game in hand. The league will resume after the Christmas period, on December 31, and then continue until June 4, 2023. The previous campaign had ended two weeks earlier.
Bundesliga
The German top flight, which has 18 teams, two fewer than most other major European leagues, has decided to take a break of more than two months to accommodate the World Cup.
Champions Bayern Munich will hope to maintain their four-point lead at the top over Union Berlin before heading into the break.
With four fewer games to slot than their counterparts in England, Spain and Italy, German action will stop on November 13 and will not resume until January 20, 2023. The season will end on May 27.
Serie A
Italy have missed out on a World Cup finals berth for a second consecutive time, stuttering in their qualification playoff with North Macedonia, but Serie A will still stop.
This is because of the high number of international players in the league who will be heading to Qatar. The league will resume action on January 4, 2023. League leaders Napoli will be going into the break with a substantial edge over Stefano Pioli’s AC Milan.
Ligue 1
Defending champions France will try to be the first team since the Garrincha-starring Brazil in 1962 to successfully retain the title. The only other team that has done so is Italy in 1938.
Their domestic season, however, hasn’t seen too many changes, starting on August 6, the same day as that of the 2021-22 campaign.
Like most other leagues, they will break after the matches on November 12-13 and resume on December 28. Paris Saint-Germain will hope to keep their place intact on top of the points table.
Champions League
Usually, the group stage runs through November until the middle of December. But for 2022-23, Uefa finished the matches on the midweek of November 1-2 by slotting three rounds of games in October. The competition will return on February 14-15 with the first of the Round-of-16 knockout games.
