Whether you’re counting down the days for England's next chance to win the elusive major tournament, or dreading the abrupt end to the domestic league, every football fan in the country – and the rest of the world – has an opinion on the unprecedented timing of the Qatar World Cup taking place in November.
But UCFB Academic Tom Skippings’ opinion, who’s worked at the last six World Cups as a reporter, may be slightly more valued than the rest of us. While the disruption to the Premier League and the quick succession of games is a common focal point, change breeds unpredictability – and this is precisely what makes this season a particularly exciting one.
The Wembley Academic commented: “It will create a whole ‘two season environment’. There’ll be a charge for the first half of the season – where it will get interesting obviously is how it effects the consequences next March or April when players are running on empty.
“If I were a Chelsea, Liverpool or Manchester City fan I might be thinking, somewhere down the line my superstar players are going to run out of steam. I think that could be a really interesting end to the season.”
The World Cup has reignited several debates surrounding the number of games for players, specifically the controversial proposal to hold the tournament every two years rather than four.
For Tom, though, even famous advocate Arsene Wenger once thought otherwise. He explained: “I’ve interviewed Arsene Wenger a lot over the years and I was a real admirer of his, a fantastic coach. But all the way through his career at Arsenal he talked about the demands of international football, the pressure it put on his players, and now there is a really different perspective coming from him.
"I don’t think there’s real traction for a World Cup every two years, I don’t think the game really wants that. I think football has to decide what’s important – I do think international football is under threat from the enormous power of the European club competitions and the concentration of the financial benefits of that.
"Football needs to protect itself from that – I think international football has a place, it’s hugely important to the normal fan."
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