I can rightly declare 2022 as the Year of Football. We will sleep, eat, dream and talk football all through the year, especially for countries, players and fans from Africa. Starting from January, there will be the African Cup of Nation. Then, the World Cup qualifiers, African play off in March.
No major tournaments will take place in the summer of 2022, as next year's World Cup is scheduled to take place in November and December of 2022 in Qatar. But we are expected to see a lot of international matches scheduled during the close of European football season between June and October 2022. Most of these international friendly are yet to be scheduled and will not be included in the calendar here.
Yet, these are the major football events of the next calendar year, which is set to be one of the busiest and exciting year in the last few seasons
Here, we take a look at some of the key dates in the 2022 calendar, which includes the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations and 2022 World Cup.
January
January 1: Transfer window opens for Premier League, EFL Bundesliga and Ligue 1 clubs
January 3: Transfer window opens for LaLiga and Serie A
January 9: Africa Cup of Nations starts
January 16: Supercopa de Espana final
February
February 1: Transfer window closes for all leagues
February 6: Africa Cup of Nations final
February 15: Start of Champions League knockout stages
February 27: Carabao Cup final
March
March 20: El Clasico
March 24, 29: World Cup qualifiers
April
April 23: Copa del Rey final
May
May 8: Madrid derby / Coupe de France final
May 11: Coppa Italia final
May 14: FA Cup final
May 18: Europa League final
May 21: DFB-Pokal final
May 25: Conference League final
May 28: Champions League final
June
June 2,3,4,5,6,7,9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14: UEFA Nations League games
August
August 6: Premier League season starts
August 12: LaLiga Santander season starts
September
September 6: Champions League group stage starts
September 22, 23, 24, 24, 26, 27: UEFA Nations League games
October
October 1: Copa Sudamericana final
October 29: Copa Libertadores final
November
November 21: World Cup starts
December
December 18: World Cup final