Every four years after the celebration of its then-last edition, the soccer fans around the globe prepare themselves to attend the FIFA World Cup. The soccer main event turns summer into the best time of the year to host it. However, Qatar 2022 will be a watershed in history: it will be the very first occasion that this tournament is going to be held in the last months of the year.
From Sunday, November 20 to Sunday, December 18, the whole world's attention will be set in the Middle East, another reason to consider Qatar 2022 as a historic edition of the FIFA World Cup: never before this region of the globe had had the opportunity to host this event.
Fair is to clarify that there is a main reason to break with the tradition kept for 21 editions along 92 years in the FIFA World Cup celebration date, and it is just to benefit and protect the main characters of the show, the players, and every one that will attend Qatar 2022 matches (fans and media). Get to know why.
Why will Qatar 2022 World Cup not be played in June and July?
In December 2010, FIFA has announced that Qatar was going to be the host country of the 22 edition of its World Cup. The Middle East country defeated Australia, the United States, South Korea, and Japan in the election.
One of the soccer community's first concerns about celebrating the FIFA World Cup in Qatar was the high temperatures reached in the summer. It is easy to have days even with 132°F (106°F average), simply impossible weather to practice soccer without risking the players, spectators, media, and general staff health.
The first option to be considered by FIFA to defeat the hot temperatures of Qatari summer was the technology. It was expected that the 2022 World Cup host country could build "a special cooling system on the field and in the stands". But it could not be enough.
Then, in March 2015, the bomb exploded: FIFA gave up searching for ways to defeat the high temperatures of Qatar during the summer and announced that the 2022 World Cup was going to be played between November and December for the very first time in soccer history.
The expected temperatures during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022
If playing the World Cup between the last months of 2022 was the unique way to celebrate this tournament in Qatar, what will be the temperature be then? This Middle East country deals with days between the 68°F and 86°F in November and December, just 41 degrees hotter than the ones that the soccer community lived during the Russia 2018 World Cup.
Another consequence of FIFA's decision to celebrate Qatar 2022 by the end of the year is to have the shortest World Cup since the one held in Argentina in 1978: just 28 days of action instead of the traditional 32 days.
