Glentoran boss Mick McDermott says the Irish League will look “Mickey Mouse” if it doesn’t take a mid-season break during next year’s World Cup in Qatar.
The 2022 World Cup is scheduled to run from November 21 to December 18 with a host of leagues across Europe set to pause for the tournament.
The Premier League confirmed this month that games in the English top-flight will take a break from November 13 to Boxing Day next year.
The Scottish Premiership will also pause during the World Cup, although lower leagues in Scotland are expected to continue.
McDermott accepts the Irish League won’t suffer from a knock-on effect of player unavailability, but said: “Are we going to be one of the Mickey Mouse leagues that plays through the World Cup?
“The Scottish league will close, the English League will close, everybody’s watching the World Cup next November and December and the Irish League will continue?
“There’ll be four World Cup games on TV a day and we will be asked to compete with that? It doesn’t make sense. It makes you look more Mickey Mouse from the outside.”
McDermott, a strong advocate for summer football, believes NIFL chiefs should have used the timing of next year’s World Cup in Qatar to trigger a natural move towards a summer calendar.
The 47-year-old has long argued that the Danske Bank Premiership should be shifted to take in more summer months when the climate is a lot milder.
He said: “Surely you boys (the media) should be asking the question to (NIFL CEO) Gerard Lawlor - is there not an opportunity to do something next year because of the World Cup?
“The Irish League is really strong now, but I still think we need to move it to the summer because the weather can be brutal at this time of year.
“If we can’t do it now and reconfigure something to take next year’s World Cup into account, I don’t know when we will do it.”
