© BELGA
One year before the start of the World Cup in Qatar, it becomes clear that the consequences for the Belgian competition are major. The next football season will last another two weeks. And there is hardly any mention of a winter break.
David Van den Broeck
In 2010, FIFA donated the 2022 World Cup to Qatar. Given the violation of human rights in that country, that didn’t seem like a good plan anyway, but there was also the heat. Five years later, it was decided to organize the tournament in the fall. With all the practical problems that entails. The national football calendars are completely turned upside down. Likewise in Belgium. The first division teams will get the guidelines – laid down in the last board of directors of the Pro League – in mind next month, but we will list them for you for the first time.
The 2022-2023 season in the Jupiler Pro League will last longer than ever before, another two weeks longer than this season. We will start on Friday 22 July – although our first European representative will start one day earlier in the second heat of the Conference League – and finish on Sunday 4 June. The football players do not have to swear on the calendar maker. Everything is the fault of the World Cup. Usually only about fifteen players from the Belgian league participate in such a World Cup and yet it is shut down for a good month on Sunday evening 13 November. A day later, the Red Devils are already meeting, a week later they start in Qatar. And once the World Cup final is finished, everything starts up again at a rapid pace. Internationals therefore get little or no rest. Three days later there is the 1/8th final of… the Croky Cup. Another three days later there is another match day. Unseen.
Incidentally, 1B will continue during the World Cup, although those teams are guaranteed not to have to play during or just before/after a match of the Devils.
Even busier for Devils
There is not much room for maneuver to complete all 34 match days plus six play-off days in 1A. Because the players are already stationary in November, they can whistle for a decent winter break. They are free on Christmas Day, but football will be played on December 23, 24, 26 and 27. Then they may be able to get a few days off from their clubs, because there will be no games on the New Year’s Eve/New Year’s weekend, but they will again the following weekend.
European club football is also being rescheduled. The groups of the Champions, Europe and Conference League are reeled in just two months, like during corona – from the beginning of September to the beginning of November. Everything goes back to normal from the knockouts, but the Champions League final will not take place until June 10, also later than ever. And for the internationals, so also for the Devils, there is no end to it. They then get a few more Nations League or European Championship qualifiers.
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