FIFA announces new window for International fixtures in 2022

While football was totally stalled for almost four months after the Covid-19 pandemic struck back in March, the European Leagues did eventually take place behind closed doors. But the scheduled 2022 World Cup qualifiers were postponed for an indefinite period, which also included India’s three remaining matches against Qatar, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh. As per the latest reports, FIFA has confirmed a new window for the pending International matches in January 2022, as reported by The Times of India.

Apart from the above announcement, the apex body has informed that the CONCACAF Gold Cup will be held from July 10 to August 1 next year, while the postponed African Cup of Nations to be held in 2021 has been pushed back to January 2022. Apart from the UEFA Nations League, all scheduled International fixtures have been kept on hold citing the pandemic.

A total of six matchdays have been pushed back in the Asian World Cup qualifiers, while the South American qualifiers, which was set kick-start in March, earlier this year, is not likely to get underway until October at the earliest. Meanwhile, the CONCACAF qualifiers which were set to start this month will not commence until March.