Friday 29 October 2021
Framework schedule for 2022/23
World Cup ensures curious Bundesliga calendar
The football World Cup 2022, which will be held in far-off Qatar and in the European winter, will of course have an impact on German professional football: It has to pause unusually early, but not unusually long in winter.
Due to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar (November 21 to December 18), German professional football will have a two-month winter break in the coming season. This can be seen from the general calendar that was approved by the Presidium of the German Football Association (DFB).
The last matchday of the year of the first division (15th matchday) and the 2nd Bundesliga (17th matchday) will be played from November 11th to 13th. The international association FIFA has set the secondment period for national players to November 14, 2022. After the World Cup and a break, the ball will roll again in the Bundesliga from January 20, 2023, the 2nd Bundesliga starts a week later.
The starting signal for the new season in the top German division will be given on August 5, 2022. The season in the 2nd Bundesliga begins three weeks earlier (July 15). The season finale in the Bundesliga will take place on May 27, 2023. One day later, the last matchday of the second division season will take place.
Not a long, but an early break
At 57 days, however, the winter break is not extraordinarily long: Up until the mid-1980s there were almost no winter breaks in the upper leagues, but after that there was often a longer break: for the 1986/87 season there was a winter break from the beginning of December to the Introduced February. In the Bundesliga, the ball rested the longest in the winters 1986/87 and 1988/89: in both years the winter break lasted a whopping 77 days. However, the Bundesliga has never interrupted its season earlier than next year.
The past season went off with almost no winter break, of course due to the corona: The 13th matchday was played until December 13th, and it continued one day after the New Year. This year the first half of the season ends on December 18th, the second half of the season starts just three weeks later on January 7th.
In addition, the dates for the DFB Cup were set. The first round will take place from July 29th to August 1st, the final will take place on June 3rd, 2023 in the Berlin Olympic Stadium. The Supercup will be played on July 30th. The two games of the first round of the DFB Cup with the participation of the Supercup participants will therefore be rescheduled on August 30th and 31st.