By Andrew Warshaw
August 26 – President Sepp Blatter has given the strongest indication yet that the Qatar 2022 World Cup will be moved from summer – but tellingly can’t confirm exactly when it would be staged instead.
Blatter has said he expects the next meeting of the FIFA executive committee meeting on October 3-4 to approve a move in principle because of fears about the searing June and July Gulf heat but says it will need time to agree on an alternative date.
Speaking during a local charity sports weekend in the Swiss canton of Valais, Blatter said a timescale would have to be worked out by consultation with the various stakeholders, suggesting a winter tournament may not necessarily be the end result.
“I would be very much surprised, more than surprised, if the ExCo will not accept the principle you cannot play in summer in Qatar,” Blatter told The Associated Press. “What will be following, this would be then decided later.”
This website has already suggested that bringing the World Cup forward by a single month, in other words to May, may be a workable compromise rather than shift the whole event to November and December.
Blatter said FIFA would be discussing the various options with leagues, clubs, national associations and players though he set no timetable.
Qatari officials have repeatedly said they would be happy to change plans if FIFA formally requested it. Blatter, once opposed to a move from summer, is now convinced it would be too hot to play at that time.
Any formal switch would have to take account of potential legal challenges but last March, FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke made it clear that FIFA would not even consider changing tack without being sure it was on safe legal ground.
Many of the exco members who chose Qatar in that decisive 14-8 vote over the United States are no longer around. But some still are and Blatter, understood to have voted for the United States, said: “Those that have taken the decision at the time, they knew there is problems with the heat. They knew it, because it was in the [technical] report.”
“It was wrong to say, ‘Now we have to play in summer,’ because in summer you cannot play there. Therefore the ExCo now shall take the decision – and they will take it – that in summer you can’t play in Qatar.”
Wealthy European clubs and leagues, led by the Premier League and Bundesliga, will fiercely oppose a winter tournament because of the massive disruption caused to their traditional August-May season.
Some European leagues would have to called off throughout the middle of the regular season – and Blatter knows this.
“What will be the ongoing situation with such a decision, we have to look on the international calendar,” he said. “We have to look if and how it is possible, when we don’t play in summer, when is the best time to play in winter?”
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