FIFA Confirms Winter World Cup for 2022

FIFA confirmed that the 2022 World Cup in Qatar would be played in the winter, announcing Thursday that its governing executive committee had set the date of that year’s final for Dec. 18.

The move away from the summer months to winter had been expected for years. Almost immediately after awarding the World Cup to Qatar in 2010, top FIFA officials, including the president, Sepp Blatter, acknowledged that playing the event in the searing heat of the Gulf summer was unworkable, and unwise.

While the final is now set, it remains unclear when the tournament will begin. The 2014 tournament in Brazil lasted 32 days, and the 2018 World Cup in Russia is scheduled at the same length. A similar timetable in Qatar would put the World Cup opener around Nov. 17, though FIFA officials suggested Thursday that a 28- or 29-day schedule was under consideration.

Few in soccer disputed the need for a move away from the summer once FIFA declared that there was no chance Qatar would lose the right to host. The problem was finding an open window on the calendar.

Any move out of the summer would upset FIFA’s richest stakeholders, most notably the European leagues and federations that would see their lucrative league and Cup seasons interrupted and the United States media companies like Fox, which will have to broadcast the tournament during the heart of the American football season.

The International Olympic Committee also received assurances from Blatter that soccer would not encroach on the February window claimed by that year’s Winter Games.

FIFA’s scheduling committee recently completed a six-month evaluation of the proposed move. In a news release last month, FIFA said that the committee had considered a number of options and “aimed to find the most viable solution for all stakeholders” given the extreme temperatures in Qatar during the traditional summer World Cup window.

Those stakeholders remain angry about the move. The switch to winter will disrupt not only league competitions in Europe and elsewhere, but also the lucrative UEFA Champions League, and it will require starting seasons earlier or finishing them later, or both.

A winter World Cup also would leave those professionals who do not go to Qatar — less than 800 of the world’s players take part — with a midseason break that could extend to two months, once pre-tournament camps and friendlies and post-Cup rest is factored in.