The Premier League has announced the official dates for the league next season, and it does not bode well for the England national team.
The dates reveal that England will have just one week of preparation ahead of the 2022 Qatar World Cup, which is set to take place in the middle of the season in order to compensate for the extreme heat in the country during the summer.
In an official statement on their website, the Premier League confirmed that the 2022/23 season will start on August 6 2022 and end on May 28 2023.
However, there will be a break in the middle of the season after match day 16, set to commence on the weekend of the 12-13 of November, that will accommodate for the World Cup.
The tournament will run from the 14th of November all the way to the final on December 18th, meaning England and other nations who have Premier League players will have just one week of preparation ahead of it with the first game commencing on November 21.
England’s top division will resume it’s calendar on boxing day, giving the players one week of recovery following the final.
For reference, the 2018 World Cup’s first game was on the 14th of June, while the final club fixture was the Champions League final that took place on May 26, nearly three weeks apart.
The news will be far from ideal for Gareth Southgate and his coaching staff who will be hoping to consolidate their impressive run with England into the last four of both the 2018 World Cup and Euro 2020 which saw England reach the final.
The scheduling will also be extremely difficult for the players, who will effectively not have any proper rest moving between club and national sides.