Fitting International Football Into the Post-Coronavirus Football Calendar

England haven't taken to the pitch for 201 days.

By the time the Three Lions do make their belated return - in September at the very earliest - they'll have endured their longest spell without an international fixture in post-war times.

For three months, there has been no football of any kind in England. Players that are used to wowing crowds twice a week have been stuck indoors, as bored as the rest of us.

Other than the postponement of UEFA Euro 2020, which feels a long time ago now, international football and its future is largely up in the air. However, it is due to become clearer on 17 June. The same day the Premier League returns, UEFA will have its latest Executive Committee meeting to discuss, and hopefully finalise, the future of the 2020/21 Nations League and the remaining Euro 2020 qualifying play-offs, involving the likes of Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Talk among leading journalists and figures in the game at the moment seems to suggest that UEFA meeting on 17 June will decide to either remove the Nations League altogether, due to be played this September, October and November, or to fit it in by making nations play more than the usual two matches each per international break.

Fitting in that one extra match per nation in upcoming international breaks may just do the trick. Otherwise, the amount of club and international football that needs playing is in danger of overworking the players.

One thing is for sure, the COVID-19 lockdown of March to June is the preseason of 2020. The only differences are that it wasn't scheduled, and that money in football was lost rather than gained. Oh, and there was no transfer window and no indication of when there will be one.

The English football calendar will end on 1 August, with the FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium. And then the Champions League and Europa League will resume, following the finale of all European football leagues that decided to continue. The final is supposedly set to be played on Saturday 29 August, although probably not in its original destination of Istanbul.

With the long break elite sport is currently taking, there will not be a long period of time off for players before the new season begins. Indeed, there wouldn't be enough time. That makes the 2020/21 season likely to start mid-September, around a month later than when it would have started, had this pandemic never happened.

Here is how the international football calendar should run between now and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

There should be no international break in September 2020, allowing for lost time on the domestic front to make up ground. The first break should come in October – a break that is of normal length in terms of both days and matches played.

The Nations League of 2020/21 should be postponed until 2022, meaning one edition of the Nations League will be lost in history forever. But to ease the pain, the draw for the 2020 edition – which pits Harry Kane and co. against Belgium, Iceland and Denmark – should be kept. And the schedule should now become the schedule for the 2022/23 edition.

For that reason, qualification for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar should be the first international football we cast our eyes upon since the coronavirus outbreak. European teams find themselves in groups of either five or - most likely- six teams in qualifying, with five-team group teams making up the numbers by booking friendlies on their two free matchdays.

Assuming England land themselves in a six-team (ten matches) group, they would play matches one and two in October 2020 and then matches three and four in November.

Recalling that four teams still need to qualify for next summer's European Championship via the play-offs, qualification for the World Cup would take a break in March 2021, as those final Euro play-offs are played. The likes of Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and Scotland would learn their fate. By the end of March, two and a half months before the finals, all 24 teams at Euro 2021 would have qualified.

June should include pre-tournament friendlies and then go straight into the Euros. Then, in September 2021, England should continue their World Cup qualification campaign, playing matches five and six. October would bring fixtures seven and eight, while November would finish the ordeal with the ninth and tenth matches. European qualification for the World Cup in 2022 would be completed by November 2021.

Qatar 2022 is of course a winter tournament, so a lot of football can be played before it. March 2022 would start off the UEFA Nations League – which requires England to play six group matches, and then a semi-final and final if they win the group.

March 2022 would see the Three Lions play group games one and two, before three and four follow in June. Remember, that's okay because the World Cup is not in the summer.

September would then see the group stage completed with matches five and six. Then, in October, there would be an international break for the Nations League semi-finalists to play their four matches (two each), and every other side would play friendlies. The winners of the 2022/23 Nations League – originally billed as the 2020/21 version – would have been decided in October 2022. The tournament would be done before 2023 even begins.

Finally, the World Cup would begin in mid-November and run until mid-December. The world would be a happy place and everyone could finally relax.

Then Euro 2024 qualifying would begin...