SPFL confirm 2022/23 schedule with break for winter World Cup

The Scottish Professional Football League has announced its plans for next season, with a break at the end of the year when the World Cup takes place in Qatar.

The Premiership season will be paused from mid-November until the week before Christmas, as attention turns to the competition in the Middle East.

All four divisions of the SPFL will start their season on the weekend of July 30. While the Championship, League 1 and League 2 will play through, the Premiership will stop after the weekend of November 12/13 and resume on December 17/18. There will be no January break in the top flight.

The Premiership split will take place after the weekend of April 22/23, with the league fixtures finishing on May 27/28 and the play-offs in the following week.

The winter World Cup also means that there are changes to the League Cup schedule. The Premier Sports Cup group stage will start in early July in line with previous years but the semi-finals will be in January and the showpiece final scheduled for February 26.

Players from across the top division will be hoping to compete for their countries at Qatar 2022 and Scotland are aiming to be among the competing nations.

Steve Clarke’s side face Ukraine in their World Cup play-off semi-final in March with the winner playing Wales or Austria days later for a place in the finals.