By Andrew Warshaw
August 11 – England’s two main football authorities are on a collision course over the 2022 Qatar World Cup after new Football Association chairman Greg Dyke (pictured) backed calls for the tournament to be switched to winter. In one of his first media briefings since taking up his role last month, Dyke said it would be “impossible” to stage the event at the traditional time because of the searing Gulf heat.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter is due to put the idea of a winter World Cup to his executive committee in October and Dyke says the FA would support such a move – in stark contrast to the Premier League who are among the fiercest opponents of any switch because of the chaos it would cause to possibly three years of the international calendar.
Dyke’s predecessor David Bernstein said in June that any change in the status quo would be “fundamentally flawed” but the new man in charge took a different view. “Even if all the stadia are air-conditioned, I think it will be impossible for the fans,” he said. “Just go out there and wander around in that sort of heat. I just don’t think it’s possible.”
“I don’t know how many people here have ever been to Qatar in June. I have, and the one thing I can tell you is that you couldn’t play a football tournament in Qatar in June.”
Although they won the bid on the basis of the World Cup’s traditional timing, the Qataris have repeatedly said they would be perfectly capable of staging it in winter with little disruption to either infrastructure or organisation. Now, two and half years after being awarded the tournament, they are facing growing momentum for a one-off November and December spectacle but will leave any decision up to Fifa.
“FIFA have got two choices,” said Dyke. “They can move it either time-wise or to another location. I suspect either will end up in some sort of litigation. But then someone should have worked that out in 2010 when it was awarded. I understand the reaction of the Premier League in not wanting to move it, and I have some sympathy with them. We didn’t have to choose to give it to Qatar in the summer. But that’s where it is, and I think it will either have to be moved out of the summer or moved to another location. I suspect that the former is more likely than the latter.”
Dyke’s stance is bound to cause friction with the Premier League who are trying to gather support for their position but who now appear to be in a minority. European Club Association chief Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, whose organisation represents over 200 clubs, has made no secret of his preference for a winter tournament.
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