Premier League season could start a MONTH late to make way for controversial new competition
THE PREMIER LEAGUE may have to start a month later in 2025 due to the rebranded Club World Cup competition.
According to Sky News, the new tournament will be spread across 29 days by Fifa in two years, which means it will finish around a month before the new Prem season.
The football world governing body has discussed June 15 to July 13, 2025 for the inaugural edition of a 32-club men’s tournament in the United States.
Under those dates, the Premier League could be starting just four weeks after the Club World Cup Final.
However, the global players’ union FIFPRO has told Fifa that footballers need a mandatory 28-day off-season break.
That means the new competition would pose challenges for the Premier League over what to do regarding teams reaching the Club World Cup Final.
That is because those teams would need to start the new domestic season about 28 days later when pre-season training usually takes place.
But there would be a further headache as two teams will also required to play in the 2025 Community Shield, which takes place a week before the Premier League starts.
Therefore, Prem chiefs may have no other choice but to push the start of the campaign, which usually kicks off in August, a month later due to the players’ welfare.
But there would still be issues due to the 2026 World Cup, which is scheduled to start in June and players will be jetting off to the US, Canada as well as Mexico.
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Players will be required to join their respective national teams on May 25, 2026, which is just a few days after the Premier League is scheduled to end in the 2025-2026 season.
The Club World Cup dates will be presented in a meeting of the Fifa Council on Sunday in Saudi Arabia where all the details could be finalised.
The new competition will have 12 representatives from Europe, with Chelsea, Real Madrid and Manchester City already added as recent Champions League winners.