By David Owen
November 16 – Qatar’s ambitious bid to bring the World Cup to the Middle East has been dealt a blow by FIFA inspectors, who have branded plans to play the competition there in June and July as “a potential health risk”.
In carefully-worded comments, the FIFA Evaluation Group chaired by Harold Mayne-Nicholls, underlined the challenges that would be posed by staging football’s premier international competition in the small but wealthy Gulf state.
There was also a potential setback for the United States, whose bid was judged a “medium” legal risk by the inspectors.
The other main contenders in the contest – Australia and South Korea – received largely clean bills of health.
What is still difficult to predict, with little more than two weeks to go before the critical December 2 vote, is how much weight the electorate, in the shape of FIFA’s ruling Executive Committee, will attach to the report.
In a summary of the document – expected to be made publicly available tomorrow, but seen already by insideworldfootball – the inspectors dwelt at particular length on the Qatar bid.
Notwithstanding the bid’s plans to make use of “environmentally friendly cooling technologies”, the report argued that “the fact that the competition is planned in June/July, the two hottest months of the year in this region, has to be considered as a potential health risk for players, officials, the FIFA family and spectators, and requires precautions to be taken”.
In further comments, the inspectors said that the “Bidder’s plan implies a new operational model for all stakeholder groups and in doing so raises certain questions, especially in terms of logistics and security.
“The realisation of the plan depends on centralised decision-making and is largely based on construction of projected general and event infrastructure, which represents a risk by restricting FIFA’s contingency planning.”
Moreover: “The fact that 10 of the 12 stadiums are locared within a 25-30 km radius could represent an operational and logistical challenge.
“Any delay in the completion of the transport projects could impact FIFA’s tournament operations.
“Moreover, it appears to be difficult to test a transport concept prior to the event under conditions comparable to the FIFA World Cup.”
The US may find itself marked down for failing to provide guarantees that would enable FIFA’s rights protection programme to be ensured.
The inspectors also observed that: “Whilst the necessary government support has not been documented as neither the Government Guarantees, the Government Declaration nor the Government Legal Statement have been provided…the US Government…has expressed its intention to enact the necessary legislation by 1 June 2013.”
Regarding Australia, the inspectors allude to potential air transport “transfer challenges” implied by the country’s “vastness and geographic location”.
Meanwhile, probably the most interesting aspect of a solid-looking South Korean bid was confirmation of an idea – first reported last December on this website – to hold some World Cup matches in North Korea.
The inspectors found enough apparent flaws in the Japanese bid for it to be probably all but ruled out of contention.
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