IF you suffer from schadenfreude towards football and football supporters the 2022 World Cup just keeps giving and giving.

Controversial from the beginning due to the ridiculousness of staging a football tournament in scorching summer temperatures, this week's news that it is going to be switched to winter came as little surprise.

It would have been nice if FIFA had told us it was going to be in winter when they awarded Qatar the tournament.

There was plenty of time to work out when it would be staged before the vote so it is reasonable to think a winter tournament was always in the offing.

Why then wait until now to tell us it will be in winter?

Sure it would have sparked controversy but that was bound to happen whenever the news was broken.

I'm sure a winter World Cup will be just as great a tournament as all the others that have been staged across the world down the years.

But traditionalists will not be happy about the changes it will make to the domestic football season.

The tournament will last for a month in November and December and finish just before Christmas and will give football leagues a headache over when to stop and start the season.

The early suggestion is that it could begin in July and end in June, enforcing the first ever winter break in England.

The question is will it set a precedent for winter breaks to become a regular occurrence in England?

For my money there is no need for a winter break here, despite it being a regular part of leagues abroad.

The winters and not bad enough for our leagues to benefit from a break.

You only have to look at the pitches in the Premier League in even the worst weather and they look like bowling greens.

It is all right having a World Cup to watch while there is no other football, but in other years taking a break for a month would be boring for fans used to the constant thrill of our domestic season.

And we all know it would be anything but a break for the players who would doubtless be required to travel to various parts of the world to play in lucrative showpiece matches as their clubs look to build the brand.

If we did introduce a regular mid-season break it would probably be in January in order not to clash with the festive season which is traditionally a major crowd-puller for clubs.

But in 2022, it is being mooted the World Cup final will be staged a few days before Christmas which could play havoc with the Boxing Day programme.

That would anger fans, but you get the feeling the authorities stopped caring about them a long time ago.