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There Are Exactly Four Years To Go Until The 2022 FIFA World Cup Final

There Are Exactly Four Years To Go Until The 2022 FIFA World Cup Final

A World Cup in Winter is going to be really strange...

Jack Kenmare

Jack Kenmare

It is just 205 weeks until the 2022 World Cup kicks off and the mere thought of it being in the winter months is still baffling.

That's right. In exactly four years time mulled wine will be thrown all over the place whilst everyone freezes their arses off watching Cameroon vs Argentina and Iran vs Algeria in the group stages.

The World Cup being held in the run up to Christmas will mean that leagues will have to break for several weeks before the tournament to allow national teams to have time with their players in the build up.

I'm still not okay with this, but FIFA vice-president Jim Boyce is more than happy with the date.

"I think it could be a tremendous World Cup because I think players will be fresher than they have ever been. It's going to be 28 days, it's not a lifetime. It means [domestic leagues] starting three weeks earlier and finishing three weeks later for one year."

Qatar's weather still averages around 20 degrees celsius in November so hopefully, we might see Gareth Southgate's famous waistcoat in action once more.

In terms of preparation, the Qatar World Cup has already had a lot of problems in the lead up to the first tournament held in the middle east, and one trade union has given light to the shocking extent of the problems with one stat.

There are so many issues with holding the tournament in Qatar.

There were questions about the legality of their bid but that aside, there's issues with when the tournament is being held, and it's knock on effect to domestic competitions, and it being held in a country with no footballing pedigree.

However all those issues pale into comparison with questions over human rights and how migrant workers are being treated, with an estimated 1,200 deaths for workers building the stadia for the tournament.

Hans-Christian Gabrielsen, Leader of Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions, revealed the extent of the issue with a shocking stat, saying:

"If we were to hold a minute of silence for every estimated death of a migrant worker due to the constructions of the Qatar World Cup, the first 44 matches of the tournament would be played in silence."

44 games is almost the entirety of the Group Stages of the World Cup with only the last four games not being affected, in the hypothetical world where the silence actually happens, which is the last round of games in Groups G and H.

Gabrielsen added, "Labor migration is one of the biggest challenges facing international trade unions today. An ever-increasing economic globalization means that we have more migrant workers today than ever before.

"The stories of the workers in Qatar are unfortunately not unique. It is the everyday life of hundreds of thousands of migrant workers around the world."

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Topics: SPORT, Football News, Belgium, World Cup 2022, Football, England, Argentina, World Cup, Brazil, Italy