XtraTime Web Desk: Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a lot of World Cup qualifying matches were postponed and now a lot of matches are left to play. Thus, FIFA confirmed a new window for all the international matches. It’s expected to happen in January 2022. On Thursday, by a statement FIFA said that the window is ratified by the decision-making FIFA council.
Other than Europe, it’ll be applicable for all the other continents. It will last from January 24 to February 1st in 2022. Hence, the European clubs will be obliged to release their players for national duty.
FIFA has also agreed that the CONCACAF Gold Cup will take place from July 10 to August 1 next year and that the Africa Cup of Nations – postponed from 2021 – will be played in January 2022.
Apart from this month’s UEFA Nations League matches, international football has been on hold since March because of the pandemic, causing widespread disruption to the qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Six match days have been postponed in the Asian qualifiers while the South American qualifiers, due to start in March, will not get under way until October at the earliest.
The CONCACAF qualifiers, which should have started this month, will not begin until March. Although the format has been modified, teams could still have to play up to 18 matches to reach Qatar.