The 2022/23 season will resume in the Premier League eight days after the World Cup final, the organization announced on Thursday afternoon. The English top competition will be shut down after the weekend of 12 and 13 November, a week before the start of the global final tournament.
The new Premier League season will start on August 6, 2022. After round sixteen, in the weekend of 12 and 13 November, the competition will come to a halt because of the World Cup in Qatar. The final round will start on November 21; the internationals who earn their living in the Premier League therefore have a week to prepare for the World Cup. The World Cup final is scheduled for December 18. Eight days later, on Boxing Day, the Premier League resumes. The last round of the new season will take place on May 28, 2023.
Bundesliga players will have longer to recover. The German competition will also come to a halt a week before the start of the World Cup, but will not resume until January 20, 2023. The DFL wants to give the players who come far in the tournament a rest on their way to a good second half of the season. The advantage of the Bundesliga is that the league consists of eighteen clubs, while the Premier League has twenty clubs. As a result, four more rounds of play are completed in England.
If the Netherlands qualify for the World Cup, national coach Louis van Gaal will receive a number of his internationals a week before the start of the group stage. Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool), Steven Bergwijn (Tottenham Hotspur), Nathan Aké (Manchester City), Donyell Malen (Borussia Dortmund) and Wout Weghorst (VfL Wolfsburg) among others earn their living in England and Germany. It is as yet unknown how long the Eredivisie will come to a standstill due to the World Cup.