FIFA's Blatter Says Qatari Weather May Mean First December World Cup
FIFA President Sepp Blatter says he expects the 2022 World Cup in Qatar to be played in winter even though the Gulf nation made no mention of changing the dates of the tournament in last month’s bidding process.
FIFA’s 22-member executive body chose Qatar ahead of the U.S. in a run-off vote last month. A report published by soccer’s governing body for voters named the Gulf emirate the only ‘high risk’ candidate to stage sport’s most-watched event.
The report said summer temperatures “seldom falling below 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit) during the afternoon” posed health risks to players and supporters. Qatari officials have promised stadiums will be cooled to limit the risk, yet Blatter’s comments mean the Qatar tournament will probably be played between December and February. That hasn’t happened so far in its 80-year history.
“I expect it to be in the winter because when you play football you must protect the main people, the players,” he told reporters in Doha, Qatar, today.
Blatter said any initiative to change the timing of the tournament would have to come from officials in Qatar. They’ve yet to make an official request. Mohamed Bin Hammam, the head of the Asian Football Confederation, and a Qatari, has said he’d like to see the event moved.
“When that vote was taken nobody mentioned it so there could be some argument that the vote should be retaken,” Graham Taylor a former England national team manager, who’s worked with FIFA, said in an interview. “Yes, they’re air-conditioning stadiums but what are people supposed to do when they’re outside of those air-conditioned stadiums?”
Major Disruption
If the tournament is moved, major European competitions like England’s Premier League, Spain’s La Liga and Italy’s Serie A would be severely disrupted. Those leagues would need to shut down for about two months and a longer-than-normal international break during the season may lead to more injuries.
“That would demand a complete re-organisation of the whole world’s fixtures and I cannot see that happening,” Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger said at a press conference today. “If all the championships are not going from March until November and you re-organise and then the dead (off) season would be in December.”
Blatter should have mentioned that the possibility of the tournament moving to the winter before the December’s voted, Taylor said.
“You can air condition a stadium, but I don’t see how you can air condition an entire country,” Chuck Blazer, a U.S. official on FIFA’s voting panel, said in November.
Millions Spent
Qatar spent millions of dollars on its lobbying efforts to bring the World Cup to a desert state smaller than Connecticut. Its efforts were successful when it secured 14 votes to the U.S.’s eight. Australia, Japan and South Korea were eliminated in earlier rounds of voting.
The members of the executive committee don’t have to reveal who they voted for, nor explain the rationale behind their selections. Two members were suspended before the selection following an enquiry into reports they’d told undercover reporters their votes could be bought.
“I cannot see any reason why people cannot be allowed to see who they voted for in the World Cup draw,” Taylor said. “Until it becomes more democratic and more open people won’t trust it.”
The weather wasn’t the only concern highlighted by FIFA’s inspection team, which visited all nine bidders for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups between July and September last year.
Logistical Problems
Qatar’s plan to host the entire 12-stadium tournament within a radius of 60 kilometers (37 miles) may pose logistical problems accommodating and transporting tens of thousands of supporters that normally travel to the quadrennial event, the inspection report said. The FIFA team also questioned whether one major international airport would be enough to cope with demand.
Officials in Qatar said they plan to spend $50 billion on improving the country’s infrastructure, which includes a train system that will have connections to the stadiums.
To contact the reporter on this story: Tariq Panja in London at tpanja@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Elser at celser@bloomberg.net
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