The European King of Clubs will be decided when City meet Chelsea in the Champions League final on May 29 in Portugal.
And then the biggies: Euro 2020 to be hosted by 11 countries from June 12 with the final in London’s Wembley Stadium on July 12, and the Copa America in Argentina with its final on July 10.
But all these will lack one main ingredient – fan presence. The number of supporters will be limited and with SOPs, celebrations will be muted.
The real return to football is only likely to come after worldwide vaccinations are done by the middle of next year – when the greatest sporting show comes back to Asia at the 2022 Qatar World Cup.
And in the new normal, Qatar promises a lot of new records.
It will be the first World Cup to be held in November-December, it will be the first to be held in the Middle East, and it will be the first to have all eight stadiums within striking distance of each other, no more than 25km away from each other.
Football fans can jump into a metro train at any one stadium after one match and be at the next stadium in just a few minutes for another, says the Qatar ambassador to Malaysia, Fahad bin Mohammed Kafood.
The stadiums themselves promise to be amazing.
Malaysians now have a chance to view these stadiums at the World Cup 2022 exhibition at Pavilion mall in Kuala Lumpur. The exhibition will be held until June 30.
The stadiums are indeed fancy. The Lusail Iconic Stadium is not only pretty but also has solar panels so it not only powers itself but also produces energy for the Lusail city sprouting around it.
Al Bayt Stadium looks like a Bedouin tent and the Education City Stadium is set to become just that, an education city, after the World Cup, with schools, and kindergartens in a 12 sq km area.
Then there is the waterfront Ras Abu Aboud Stadium with a lake around it in Doha – an “IKEA stadium”, of sorts. It is 100% pre-fab, brought from China in shipping containers and fixed together like an IKEA cabinet. Even the containers have been used as part of the building!
After the World Cup, it will be completely dismantled and moved elsewhere, maybe to Africa to help the poor there, says Fahad.
He said more than US$10 billion (RM40 billion) had been spent on building and refurbishing the eight stadiums.
These will be far more than just football arenas. Not only will the fans be sitting in air-conditioned comfort, the players too will play in air-conditioned arenas whose roofs can be closed to keep the cool air in, he says.
Al Bayt stadium, for one, will have luxurious suites where visitors can stay for the duration of the World Cup and just step out to their balcony to watch the matches!
Can there be a better way to soak up the World Cup atmosphere?
Ambassador Fahad said six stadiums are ready while two more are almost ready.
“However, all the infrastructure, the hotels, the logistics and the metro trains are up and running,” he said when FMT visited the exhibition
The Qatari football team is also all set, with 22-year-old Al Saad club striker Akram Alif winning the Asian Player of the Year award for 2019, the second consecutive winner from Qatar after club teammate Abdelkarim Hassan. There was no award for 2020.
So, come to Qatar for the best football on earth, says ambassador Fahad. But first, he says, come to the Pavilion mall for a sneak preview of what is in store.