January – Africa Cup of Nations
Prevailing attitudes towards Afcon among Premier League clubs are often unhealthy but, for those with a genuine sleep together for the frolic itself, it is one of the most bewitching spectacles around. This year ’ second edition, postponed from 2021, will be played in Cameroon ; the competition has become used to late scares over its host and has had to overcome concerns over Omicron and the reluctance of european sides to release their players. But once the indomitable Lions kick off against Burkina Faso on 9 January attention will rest on the peddle. It should be an outdoors tournament, contested by some of the global ’ mho best players, with the 2019 finalists, Algeria and Senegal, the teams to beat. About 40 of the players taking part are England-based, while the commitment shown by Sky and the BBC in screening every game is testament to the tournament ’ sulfur invigorated global profile .
March – World Cup play-offs
The World Cup play-offs faithfully offer some of the most exhilarating, cliff-hanging tension about and this year is improbable to be different. In Europe a modern format sees three mini-tournaments start at the semi-final stage on 24 March and conclude, five days late, with a set of knife-edge shootouts for a place at Qatar 2022. Should things go as expected, Portugal will face Italy in one of them ; Wales could play Scotland in another and it would be heartening to see home nations ’ interest following winter extend beyond England. Elsewhere, five african teams will emerge from a fix of acute two-legged ties with a World Cup berth : the attract will be made this month and Mali, in particular, may fancy a first qualification. far play-offs pitting an asian side against a south american team, and Concacaf representatives against one from Oceania, will take place in Qatar during the summer .
Ibrahima Koné celebrates after scoring the lone goal of the game in Mali ’ s World Cup 2022 qualifier against Kenya in October. Photograph: Kelly Ayodi/AFP/Getty Images
May – Championship shakedown
Fulham and Bournemouth have threatened to run away with the backing at times and, as a late point will cover, that is no estimable thing. But they have serious competition from Blackburn, outsiders at the start of the season but third base by a hair’s-breadth after taking 22 points from the last available 24. The picture below that is faithfully chaotic, with teams as far down as 12th-placed Sheffield United harbouring realistic ambition of a play-off energy. All of life can placid be found in England ’ randomness second tier for immediately, even if it appears at ceaseless risk of becoming more stratify than always. If the tension does dry up at the acme then not to worry : in the nether regions Wayne Rooney ’ second Derby, deducted 21 points and operating with a patchwork team, have embarked on a run that puts them in with a exclaim of what would surely be the most unlikely survival of all time. The fiver : sign up and get our daily football electronic mail .
May – Can Arsenal Women turn back the clock?
Time was when Arsenal Women had a stranglehold on the domestic game. They had won seven neat titles when the Women ’ s Super League was inaugurated in 2011 and immediately added two more. But they have won merely one of the subsequent eight and were not expected to topple the lavishly resourced Chelsea or Manchester City this time around. With the halfway degree loom, though, they lead Emma Hayes ’ side by four points while City are nowhere. Under Jonas Eidevall, a young Swede who increasingly looks to have been an inhale refilling for Joe Montemurro last summer, Arsenal have improved importantly and played some delightful attacking football. It goes without saying that Vivianne Miedema, second base in the division ’ sulfur scoring charts, has been fundamental to their title care ; she is out of contract in the summer but, should Arsenal be able to roll back the years to reign supreme once more, it might become easier to make her stay .
Will Vivianne Miedema, seen here scoring against Spurs, last out at Arsenal ?
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Photograph: Catherine Ivill/The FA/Getty Images
July – England hosts Euro 2022
entirely three Uefa Women ’ s Championships have been staged since England last hosted the tournament but Euro 2005 feels a life away. Back then the hosts finished bottom of Group A and the final examination between Norway and the eventual champions, Germany, drew just over 21,000 fans to Ewood Park. Nowadays England, semi-finalists in 2017, can be considered among the favourites and should be spurred on by a tide of euphoria. The broth of the women ’ randomness plot has never been higher and should lone grow this summer, with no serious competition in the footballing calendar. euro 2022 was primitively euro 2021 but found itself moved back in the calendar after Covid-19 meant the men ’ second Euro 2020 was postponed ; it will be worth the wait, with 10 venues around the country giving access to a wide distribution of fans, and if Sarina Wiegman ’ mho team go all the way, the Wembley final will be the summer ’ s hot ticket .
England fans at Wembley expect on as England players huddle anterior to the Women ’ second World Cup 2023 modifier against Northern Ireland in October. Photograph: Lynne Cameron/The FA/Getty Images
July – Who will sign Vlahovic and Haaland?
The two brightest young strikers in Europe will probably lead the summer ’ mho transfer chatter. In an ideal global Dusan Vlahovic would stay at Fiorentina, watch a successful team be built around him and cement a bequest akin to that of Gabriel Batistuta. But cipher with the 21-year-old striker ’ randomness potential is allowed to stick around outside the biggest clubs for long nowadays and, given he has rejected a new contract, he will about surely be with a Champions League big hitter next season. Vlahovic, who has scored 16 in 19 for a mid-table slope this temper, could credibly fill a centre-forward void – if there in truth is one – at Manchester City. exchangeable questions will be asked about Erling Braut Haaland, whose early-career feats have been flush more remarkable. If Vlahovic ’ s inevitable passing speaks tiredly of football ’ s contemporary market forces then the theme Haaland must leave Borussia Dortmund to better himself is even more grim and it seems likely he will take his phenomenal goalscoring capacities to England or Spain for 2022-23 .
Will Dusan Vlahovic move from Fiorentina to Manchester City ? Photograph: Giuseppe Maffia/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
August – 30 years of the Premier League
The second weekend of the 2022-23 season will mark three decades since a Premier League ball was first kicked in businesslike. It has become a fugitive gearing, cannibalising the huge majority of its rival, and the brutal truth is that even its lower-ranked sides can outspend all cake a bantam handful of their contemporaries elsewhere in Europe. The current campaign features 12 of those who were pioneers in 1992 and that does suggest a fair degree of mobility across the divisions has been sustained. But the more late proliferation of yo-yo sides such as Norwich, Fulham and West Brom serves as a admonition that diverseness is becoming limited, as does the pitiless accumulation of points at the circus tent by Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool. The timbre might be high but, after a year when its conduct lights disgraced themselves by attempting to found the european Super League, there is little sign that the top trajectory has serious pastime in helping the rest keep up. A welcome thirtieth birthday award might be a little humility and a dose of awareness that a healthy bigger picture would make the “ merchandise ” even more attractive and less predictable.
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Wimbledon ’ s Vinnie Jones nails a Wimbledon shirt to his picture on a billboard promoting the first Premier League season. Photograph: Getty Images
November – World Cup in Qatar
A twelve years after winning the rights, Qatar opens its doors to the universe amid the most jumbled-up feelings. Everyone loves World Cups : they are cherished and all the more so for taking place every four years, which is one of the reasons Fifa ’ s attack to rush in a biennial format must be stopped. But this one takes rate under an ineluctable cloud and the best thing football can do is try to strike a libra. If this tournament has anything like the on-pitch drama of Russia 2018 and Euro 2020, it will be the most capture of diversions as the nights get cold and short ; the visibility that brings must count for something, though, given the farseeing list of homo rights concerns that have dogged the hosts. National teams can take a stand, as Denmark have in pledging to step up their public criticism of Qatar over the come months. The real number test for this World Cup, far beyond its entertainment measure, will be whether it has lived up to its own charge as a force for lasting good .