Qatar loses key pre-World Cup tournament because of oppressive summer heat
The Confederations Cup is a tournament that traditionally serves as a test event one year before the World Cup. It has always been held during the summer between European professional league seasons.
The 2022 World Cup in Qatar was moved to winter because of the oppressive summer heat. Since FIFA can't disrupt domestic leagues with a winter Confederations Cup in 2021, and it's already established that it's too hot to play soccer in Qatar in summer, the tournament will be held in somewhere else in Asia during the June-July window, AFP reports.
A FIFA task force said on Tuesday that they were looking into using another international competition as a test event in November-December of 2021, though it's unclear what that could be.
Qatar is building stadiums and World Cup-related infrastructure from scratch. Without a major international competition to debut these new structures and systems, the World Cup itself could be the first time they're tested to full capacity.