By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich
October 4 – No decision on switching the 2022 Qatar World Cup to winter will be made until next year’s World Cup finals in Brazil, at the earliest, Insideworldfootball has learnt. As FIFA’s eagerly awaited two-day executive meetings in Zurich wound up, as anticipated, an agreement was reached to set up a commission to examine the issues of moving the 2022 World Cup date away from the heat of the Qatar summer.
FIFA was due to give further details at a press conference this afternoon, but sources confirmed a commission of stakeholders across the globe would be formed.
It has been reported that AFC president Shaikh Salman Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa would head the commission, but this has not been confirmed.
However, one executive committee member who declined to be named, said it would be several months before any exact alternative date will be set and almost certainly not before the 2014 World Cup.
Another member of the exco, Belgium’s Michel d’Hooghe, also cited next year’s World Cup as the earliest possible time an alternative date for 2022 could be taken.
But D’Hooghe went even further by confirming what Insideworldfootball had been told by high-ranking sources yesterday (http://www.insideworldfootball.com/fifa/13369-qatar-holds-firm-in-zurich-desert-storm-as-politicos-sharpen-agendas), that it may be another two years before we know exactly when the Qatar World Cup is played.
“At the earliest in 2015,” d’Hooghe was quoted as saying. “We need some concrete information – this will not be done in two days. We have to look together with our marketing and broadcast partners. Don’t expect any decision from the commission before the World Cup in Brazil. We have two World Cups before Qatar where we also have concerns.”
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