FIFA confirms 2022 Qatar World Cup will be held in November and December

(Laurence Griffiths/Getty)

FIFA announced today that the 2022 World Cup, controversially hosted by Qatar, will take place from November 21 to December 18. The official announcement confirms a similar report in February from SI writer Grant Wahl.

Qatar, which beat out the US for the rights to host the tournament in 2010, promised to hold the tournament over the summer and said that it would use special space-age cooling technologies to lower temperatures within stadiums from 120 degrees to 80 degrees.

However, in November, currently suspended FIFA General Secretary Jérôme Valcke announced that FIFA was deciding between winter dates. Today, the organization confirmed the November-December option.

Hosting the World Cup during the winter will cause a handful of problems, namely that the top leagues around Europe will need to adjust their schedules of play around it. In the US, a nation desperate to have soccer catch on, the 2022 World Cup will compete with the NFL, NBA, college football and basketball, and the NFL.

Richard Whittall, who writes about soccer for The Guardian and The New Yorker, summed up the financial implications of a winter World Cup:

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