FIFA: The Qatar WC will start sometime between Nov 15 and Jan 15

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/01/08/sport/football/valcke-qatar-world-cup-2022-football/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

http://www.lequipe.fr/Football/Actualites/Le-mondial-au-qatar-en-hiver-valcke/430253

"It will be played between November 15 and January 15 at the latest. If it's played between November 15 and the end of December, that is when the weather is most favorable," Valcke, who is Sepp Blatter's deputy, told France Info.

So now it's confirmed the the 2022 WC will definitely happen in the winter...

Eh.

I probably won't be watching Football by then............

Eh the WC will be irrelevant by then.

Well, dunno if it definitely happens - if they move it to winter, then there could be lawsuits as the World Cup bids were supposed to be made for summer.

UEFA is ok with it.  The idea is that CL competition is moved back to after the WC and would end at the end of July.  Pool play would happen in the season and elimination stage CL would be like a NT Euro for clubs. That was, the leagues could use the CL pool play dates to move the games that would happen normally during Dec-Jan.

Kind of exciting actually in terms of having a club Euro competition during the summer.

Love how Sports is so pro-Qatar here.Not surprised though.

FIFA Vice President Jim Boyce contradicts the statement on Sky Sport News.

"I am totally and completely shocked. Absolutely 100% it has not been decided as far as the Executive Committee are concerned.

"It was agreed that all the stakeholders would meet, all the stakeholders would have an input and then a decision would be made. And that decision, as far as I understand, would not be taken until the end of 2014, or the March executive meeting in 2015, and that's the position as I understand it today.

"Whether Jerome was making a personal opinion or not I just don't know, but I can honestly confirm that this has not been discussed with the Executive Committee of Fifa."

Official FIFA statement: "The precise event date is still subject to an ongoing consultation process."

mr-r34 wrote:Eh the WC will be irrelevant by then.

Yeah, no.

Absolutely Farce.

Need to Boycott the World Cup.

What is this nonsense??


Seriously need to just take away the WC from Qatar. The whole situation is a disgrace.

This is what happens when you give the World Cup to a desert country.

I'm not pro Qatar.  But there are a lot of double standards our there ad i think that's bs.  Does Qatar have human rights issues?  Sure.  But so did China and they go the Olympics.  Russia is worse and they got a WC.  Brazil has massive issues too, but no problem.

If you're going to hold a country to one standard, then you need to hold all the other countries to the same standard.

As far as having the WC in the winter, i don't see the problem.  Most leagues other than the EPL get a 2 week vacation.  Also, UEFA is willing to move its competition into the summer timeframe normally reserved to the WC and allow FIFA to use the openings resulting in the winter to play the WC... so the impact to the players is minimal.  Really, it's just a question of the leagues scheduling games in CL/Europa dates as opposed to leaving those open.

The great thing is that it sets the precedent for other countries to become candidates for the WC if the northern hemisphere winter period is open for the competition.  Remember that winter in the northern hemisphere is summer in the south.

sportsczy wrote:As far as having the WC in the winter, i don't see the problem

Well, there is one tiny problem that the other countries who bid for 2022 could exploit legally. The 2022 World Cup bids were made for a *summer* event. If it is needed to move it to winter, then the other countries in that bid could argue that the Qatar bid was made under wrong premises and as they bid for a summer world cup and Qatar cannot offer a summer world cup while the other countries can, the bidding process might need to be reviewed and the voting repeated.

That's not true... It's not like the olympics. it's not qualified as summer or winter. just the year. countries postulated for the world cup of 2022. there is no legal leg to stand on.

Really? I think I remember I read in some German newspaper (Spiegel or whatever) that this Summer thing might be something that could give the other bidders a possibility for a legal complaint. But then, I haven't read the small print of the World Cup bidding process myself.

Its like 8 years away who really cares lol?

By that point we'll be all old anyway

The thing is Qatar promised to have air conditioned stadiums on their bid. Now there is talk about moving the tournament to winter. What happened to the air conditioned stadiums/artificial clouds? Is'nt Qatar going back on what they promised in their bid?

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:Its like 8 years away who really cares lol?

By that point we'll be all old anyway

By that time we'll probably have money and might be able to attend the event

sportsczy wrote:That's not true...  It's not like the olympics.  it's not qualified as summer or winter.  just the year.  countries postulated for the world cup of 2022.  there is no legal leg to stand on.

January 2023 sounds very much like a "world cup of 2022"   

rwo power wrote:Really? I think I remember I read in some German newspaper (Spiegel or whatever) that this Summer thing might be something that could give the other bidders a possibility for a legal complaint. But then, I haven't read the small print of the World Cup bidding process myself.

 The bid requires that you have the infrastructure to be ready to host it by summer of 2022.  Qatar is not requesting the winter WC nor are they behind in building the infrastructure... this is purely a decision that FIFA is making unilaterally.  So what can you sue for?  The leagues and the national federations could sue FIFA, that's true.  Legit there because it affects them.  They could ask that the WC remain in the summer. But the bidders can do anything. Qatar is hosting it one way or the other...

By the way, in Germany, the DSV (Deutscher Ski-Verband, German Skiing Association) are not amused at all about the idea that there could be a football World Cup in winter as they think it would ruin the viewing figures for the winter sport events.

Yeah but there is no non-compete agreements obviously...  They don't have to like it.

I understand why FIFA is doing this btw. Footy is worldwide. There are a lot of countries that would now be able to host events if the northern hemisphere winter window was open... they're making football a world sport as opposed to just Europe and South America.

I hate everything about FIFA... but i understand where they're going with this.

Changing to winter was never something to discuss till Qatar came into the picture. Why?

Because of the weather?

M99 wrote:Because of the weather?

That should have at least been considered when choosing the hosts for world cup. But it shouldn't be a big deal once Qatar gets those artificial clouds up and running.

That FIFA bait and switch

The fact of the matter is that if FIFA is going to have a WC in Qatar and that's not changing, it's dangerous for both players and fans to have it during the summer. We're still in time to revoke Qatar's WC, considering they promised air conditioned stadiums, but the FIFA committee has already spent all that bribe money, so it's not happening.