FIFA have announced that the 2022 Football World Cup will take place in November and December 2022, at the other end of the year from the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics which will be staged in February/March of that year.
The decision on the timing is likely to upset European teams who had wanted a May 2022 tournament after the normal summer days were ruled out as unsafe for players and fans due to the extremely high temperatures in Qatar. It is unclear so far just how upset European teams will be, and whether they will attempt to change FIFA's mind on the date decision or pull out of participating.
After it was initially decided that the tournament would be moved to the winter, the IOC expressed concerns of a dates clash with the Winter games, citing issues with sponsors and television rights. This scenario now appears to be largely avoided, with the two tournament actually being staged further apart in the year than normal.
The IOC will decide this summer on 31st July whether China or Kazakhstan will host the 2022 Winter Olympics, after Norway, Switzerland, Germany, Ukraine, Sweden and Poland pulled out of the bidding process due to lack of popular support, in some cases partially blaming excessive demands by the IOC for their decisions.
This means the 2022 Winter Olympics will be the third in a row to be staged on the Asian continent, although Sochi was technically in Europe, just. Neither of the two remaining candidates currently have the infrastructure in place to stage the Games, China in particular lacks a mountain in its bid cities' area big enough to hold the Downhill, although an area of national parkland has been identified as a possible location. A report in the China Daily newspaper also pointed to problems with natural snow cover, a shortage of water to supply snow cannons and of smog in the area where the country hopes to host the 2022 Games.