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Qatar 2022 World Cup will start in November and be extremely rushed
Not great, but better than the summer.
Dennis Grombkowski/Getty Images
We now have confirmation that the 2022 World Cup in Qatar will be the dumbest and most disruptive of all time. FIFA has announced a start date of Nov. 21 and the tournament will run for 28 days. That’s four fewer than usual, so there won’t be many rest days at all.
This means every league is going to have to pause for about six weeks, and players aren’t going to get much time off between the end of the World Cup and the resumption of their seasons. This is extremely stupid, but less stupid than playing in Qatar in the summer, so ... good job?
In the news
Swiss authorities are opening a criminal investigation against Sepp Blatter. (@SamBorden)
Brendan Rodgers says he’s not afraid of getting fired. (BBC)
Neymar admits Manchester United tried to sign him and he knew about it. (Guardian)
Pepe and Sergio Ramos are both likely out this weekend for Real Madrid. (AS)
Uh, Mr. Bee never actually finished buying his stake in Milan. (Football Italia)
Someone asked Pep Guardiola about coaching England next year and he was annoyed. (Telegraph)
You should be reading
Sander IJtsama on PDO, a hockey stat now being used in soccer. (11tegen11)
Matt Gault on Hamburg’s two teams and their rivalry. (These Football Times)
Jacob Steinberg on Callum Wilson, who never had a salad before his girlfriend made him one. (Guardian)
What to watch this weekend (click for listings, all times ET)
EPL: Spurs vs. Man City (Saturday, 7:45 a.m.) - An early game worth waking up for.
La Liga: Barcelona vs. Las Palmas (Saturday, 10 a.m.) - Because Barca is probably real mad.
EPL: Newcastle vs. Chelsea (Sunday, 12:30 p.m.) - Watch Steve McClaren go down in flames.
Serie A: Napoli vs. Juventus (Sunday, 2:45 p.m.) - If there’s a loser, their fans might get really unreasonable really fast.
Liga MX: America vs. Chivas (Saturday 6 p.m.) - Mexico’s biggest rivalry is always dumb fun.
Serie A: Inter Milan vs. Fiorentina (Sunday, 2:45 p.m.) - Italy’s top two compete in the false hope derby.
MLS: LA Galaxy vs. FC Dallas (Sunday, 9:30 p.m.) - This should be a really good advertisement for the quality of MLS.
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