We’ve barely caught our breath from the frenzied finish to the last Premier League season, which saw Manchester City pull off more final-day dramatics to beat Liverpool to the title, but already our attention is turning to the new campaign.
Due to the Qatar World Cup, 2022/23 is going to be a season like no other in the top flight.
Sweltering summer temperatures in the tournament’s host country mean that for the first time ever it will be held in November and December.
With so many players from the World Cup’s 32 competing nations – including Gareth Southgate’s England and Robert Page’s Wales – plying their trade in the Premier League, a 44-day winter break has been scheduled in an attempt to minimise the impact on top-flight clubs.
Fitting all 38 matchdays into a season that still runs from August to May and includes a break of more than six weeks is no easy feat but with the fixtures for next term now confirmed, we know how they plan to do it.
RadioTimes.com highlights all the key dates for the Premier League 2022/23 season and explains how the World Cup break will work in the middle of such a hectic schedule.
When does the Premier League start?
The full schedule for the Premier League 2022/23 season was announced on Thursday so we now know that it will begin on Friday 5th August 2022 – a week earlier than last year – and run until Sunday 28th May– a week later than in 2021/22.
Crystal Palace will host Arsenal in the curtain-raiser at Selhurst Park on the first Friday of August, with kick-off set for 8pm in south London.
The last of the opening weekend’s 10 fixtures will be the Sunday 4:30pm kick-off between West Ham United and champions Manchester City at the London Stadium.
When is the Premier League World Cup break?
The 2022/23 Premier League season includes a 44-day break to allow for the World Cup in Qatar, with the tournament scheduled to start on Monday 21st November 2022 and conclude with the final on Sunday 18th December 2022.
To allow players time to link up with their respective national teams, the top flight will pause on Monday 14th November (after matchday 16), and will then return, fittingly given its importance in the English football calendar, for Boxing Day fixtures on Monday 26th December 2022.
In the EFL, League One and League Two will keep playing throughout the tournament while the Championship will have a shorter break – stopping on Saturday 12th November and restarting on Saturday 10th December.
How will the Premier League 2022/23 season work?
The Premier League campaign may be starting a week earlier and finishing a week later than in 2021/22 but clearly, that alone is not going to make up for a 44-day break during what is usually the busiest time of the season.
A reduced number of international breaks will help, with the weekends of the 24th and 25th September and the 25th and 26th March the only scheduled times for international football outside of the Qatar World Cup.
There will also be games crammed into midweek slots, with Premier League clubs handed a reminder of what it is like in the EFL. Indeed, there are Tuesday and Wednesday night games scheduled in August, October, and April.
The Premier League season will still break for the third (7th and 8th September) and fourth (28th and 29th September) rounds of the FA Cup.
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