Federation Focus: Qatar 2022 Schedule Announced

(ATR) Hosts Qatar will kick off the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Al Bayt Stadium on November 21, 2022.

FIFA unveiled the match schedule for the tournament on Wednesday.

There will be four games played every day during the 12 days of the group stage, which will run from Nov. 21 - Dec. 2 across eight stadiums in Qatar. FIFA says the schedule "ensures optimal rest time for the teams".

The kick-off times forthe group stage matches will be 1 pm, 4 pm, 7 pm, and 10 pm local (5 am, 8 am, 11 am, and 2 pm EST).

The World Cup Final on Dec. 18 will be held in Lusail Stadium in Doha at 10 pm (2 pm EST) in front of a crowd of 80,000 fans.

Due to the extreme heat in the summer, this is the first time that the World Cup will be held during the winter months. This is also the firsttime the World Cup will be played in the Middle East.

NFL Teams Up With World Games 2022

The World Games 2022 announces flag football as the 33rd sport on its program in a new partnership that includes the National Football League.

TheInternational World Games Association (IWGA) and International

Federation of American Football (IFAF) are also part of the agreement.

The 2022 edition of the World Games will be in Birmingham, Alabama, the first time the event has been in the United States since 1981. American football is the most popular sport and the NFL the most popular sporting league in the US.

"The world is longing to reconnect, and Birmingham, Alabama will play a pivotal role in that re-connection. The NFL’s partnership sends a signal to every company in the world that associating their brand with this special event is important for the world to see." Nick Sellers, CEO of the World Games 2022, said in a statement.

For the next two years, the NFL will sponsor flag football in addition to promoting the 2022 World Games across its platforms.

Eight men’s and eight women's teams will feature at the World Games in two years.

The U.S. men’s and women’s teams are already qualified as the current world champions. The rest of the teams will be selected through IFAF qualifiers.

2020 Archery World Cup Canceled

After a unanimous decision from its executive board, World Archery has canceled its annual championship tournament, the Hyundai Archery World Cup.

This announcement confirms that there will not be any more outdoor World Archery competitions for the remainder of the year.

"Athletes have been at the center of our work to return to international competition. Their well-being is our absolute priority and while we know that events can be held safely, ongoing restrictions mean that too many would be excluded from any single world-level tournament." World Archery president Ugur Erdener said in a statement.

Since competition was halted in March, World Archery had researched several options for a future return. After sending national federations the proposals, more than half of the federations preferred the season be canceled.

In place of the canceled season, World Archery will open the world ranking on Sept. 1. This will be for the athletes and coaches that desire to compete in 2020. During this period, "new rankings can be added but no ranking points will depreciate."

USA Weightlifting Shifts to Remote Work

USA Weightlifting becomes the first U.S. NGB to work remotely, becoming one of the first Olympic organizations to permanently enforce a change.

USA Weightlifting’s headquarters in Colorado Springs will serve as a co-working and meeting space. Though regularly working from home, staff will meet in person and have the option to work collaboratively in the office.

"We’ve been delighted with the way that our staff have reacted to the pandemic and we believe that a flexible and agile way of working suits us best moving forward,"USAW CEO Phil Andrews said in a statement.

Working remotely will also provide new job opportunities for applicants throughout the U.S.

The NGB is one of many to suffer financial hardship during the pandemic, however during the worst months of the outbreak in both March and April the organization made a profit as they moved to a leaner working model.

"This is likely to be the ‘new normal’ for work and we are happy to move aggressively towards that," Andrews said.

Written by Greer Wilsonand Jose Chavez

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