Qatar's 2022 World Cup 'Diamond in the Desert' stadium completed https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/29/...up-education-city-stadium-spt-intl/index.html
Only 3 according to the linked article. There will be 8 stadiums in total. At least that's the plan...
It will be league cups. Missing a month is on average5 or 6 league matches and 1 max 2 European matches per month. Easy to make that up by skipping domestic cups for a year. In England the Premier League is separate from the FA but the Premier League runs club football, but in many European countries the national federations run club football and the money they get from international football is greater than domestic cup matches so the incentive is in place to go along with UEFA's new modified calendar which they all created and agreed to anyway.
But then how about the domestic leagues in North America (MLS, Canadian Premier League, Liga MX, etc) or the other leagues in Asia, Africa, etc. how does FIFA plan on compensating those leagues in terms of modifying calendars
Those leagues aren't in a sprint to get this season and next done by June 2021. Those leagues also don't take a month off during Euro 2021.
Yeah that's true but some of those players play in USA, Mexico, Canada, Asia, Africa, etc. so their leagues may not even allow them to play in EURO 2021 so there's that too
Clubs must release players for FIFA breaks and major int'l tournaments. Unless that rule doesn't apply in this instance due to the Euros being rescheduled, but I highly doubt that. And Copa America is supposed to take place next summer too.
So much international tournaments in such a small window of time and you can bet qualifiers now for Qatar at best will be shortened especially if you try to fit everything in like CONCACAF Nations League, UEFA Nations League, Champions League, etc.
At least this one is easy: Concacaf just has to play out the Finals from the first edition, which will likely happen at the first available opportunity (October or November). The second CNL wasn't going to begin until after WCQ anyways...
Yoooooooo @Nico Limmat where did this beef come from? I can't remember the last time I heard of any acrimony within the Swiss MNT.
Then that of course makes sense but then wouldn't it make sense for Asia and Africa to do the same and have their own Nations Leagues as a way to fast track towards WCQ
Conmebol's WCQ will now start in October, with a special FIFA window in January 2022 being considered so that they can play out the full schedule.
The going rumor is the 3 groups of 4...but with Concacaf having room for up to 14 matchdays between March 2021 and March 2022, I just can't envision only using 6 of them for the Top Tier (the Tier II tournament will have to use up all 12 matchdays in 2021, mind). Maybe Montagliani and co. settle on 2 Hex groups? Winner of each goes to the WC finals, and runners-up play off with the winner qualifying and the loser taking on the Tier II winner for the intercontinental playoff berth.
Yes. Since yesterday, some Panamanian media have leaked a possible format that would be made official on July 20: The first 5 ranked teams would get a bye to the final octagonal (Mexico, USA, Costa Rica, Jamaica and Honduras), while the rest of the 30 teams play a few previous rounds to find the 3 remaining places. CONCACAF maneja las fechas de octubre (5-13) o noviembre (9-7) para empezar la eliminatoria, sobre el formato se podría presentar una idea donde los 5 primeros del ranking van directo a la ronda de 8 y los 3 cupos restantes se definirán en varias fases. pic.twitter.com/MrOEN4bfjH— Ricardo Icaza (@ricardoicaza7) July 9, 2020 https://www.tvmax-9.com/somoslasele/ventila-formato-eliminatorias-Concacaf-Catar_0_5620687983.html
Makes sense to start in October. Peru, Chile and Brasil are the 3 countries being hit the hardest by COVID at the moment. A January FIFA window would make it increasingly difficult to finish UEFA leagues in time for the Euros and Copa America to proceed as scheduled. By my calculation, even if teams played 2 matches every week, leagues would only fit 19 rounds of matches in before Christmas.
Octagonal, thats been the rumor, you gotta wonder if it will be 2 groups of 4 then playing 6 matches, with 2nd place teams playing off for final spots. 8 teams would mean 14 games, seems tough to do
Fifa rejected the groups of 4, considering that six games were too few to qualify for a World Cup .... If Conmebol will make a decagonal, I don't see why Concacaf cannot make an octagonal...
Source? Mind you, Icaza just refers to a Final Round of 8, not that they would all be in the same group. But let's say that an Octagonal is on the table (which would spare us the need for a 4th-place playoff). That's 14 matchdays, which could be spread out as: March 2021 June 2021 (4 matchdays) September 2021 October 2021 November 2021 March 2022 That's doable, but leaves two glaring issues: 1) When would the Gold Cup playoffs take place? 'cause that 2021 Gold Cup's happening one way or another - Concacaf's depending on it and the Nations League finals to cushion the financial blow from this year. 2) More importantly, how do you cut down 30 teams to 3 in only 4 games (Oct and Nov 2020)? It's impossible unless single-elimination matches are on the table; and for Montagliani, it would be an utter betrayal of his commitment to get more games for the smaller teams. I think you might have misread it: the proposed extra window is January 2022.