When you have a major tournament in the Winter, certain US sports that clash with the 2022 World Cup could be impacted.

The comments of Jérôme Valcke, FIFA’s General Secretary, about the potential timing of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar came as a shock to much of the world soccer community. But how specifically will a shift from summer to winter impact the United States in 2022?

US Sports That Clash With 2022 World Cup

On July 15, 2020, FIFA announced the dates for the 2022 World Cup. As many anticipated, the tournament takes place over a monthlong span from Nov. 21 to Dec. 18.

The first tournament to happen in these months of the year, several major sporting events overlap with World Cup television coverage. FOX Sports, the home of the World Cup until at least 2026, may come across a few scheduling conflicts.

For example, here is a list of major American sporting events in late November through December:

  • NFL regular season
  • Several high-profile regional college football rivalries including Ohio State-Michigan, Florida-Florida State, Alabama-Auburn, UCLA-USC and Oregon-Oregon State
  • The title games of every major college football conference including the SEC, ACC, PAC 12, Big 12 and Big 10
  • Several early season college basketball tournaments that generally include almost every school with a national following
  • The final NASCAR race of the season where the points title is determined, and
  • Early NBA and NHL regular season games.

Fortunately, at least to some extent, this is not the worst case scenario for FOX. FIFA also sought out a tournament spanning from December 15 to January 15. In that case, NFL regular season and playoffs, college football postseason, NHL and NBA regular season games and other sports would be conflicted. Now, we see some of those sports still in a time conflict, but not as much of a significant impact.

It will be very interesting to see how things play out going forward but the possibility of a winter World Cup already has many people involved in the game in the United States scratching their heads.

Further reading:

FIFA Holds Secret Talks With FOX Sports Over Switching Winter 2022 World Cup to Winter