Let’s put things into perspective. Whilst no-one would deny that Jerome Valcke’s off-the-cuff remarks over a winter World Cup in Qatar were untimely in the extreme, was Sepp Blatter’s right-hand man really telling us anything we didn’t know already?
Stakeholders throughout the game have understandably cried foul at Valcke seemingly jumping the gun before the time frame for global consultation is anywhere near complete.
Insideworldfootball has learned, for example, that the Qatar organisers received more concerned calls over this particular 2022 story that at any time in last two years – not least from anxious broadcasters and sponsors, especially in the United States, asking what on earth was going on and claiming they hadn’t been informed about any switch of date.
Just like FIFA, to appease a sceptical public, the Qataris were forced on to the back foot and had to rush out a statement assuring the world that nothing had changed and that the debate over whether to shift the World Cup from summer was still very much ongoing.
Yet we all know pretty much how it will end, don’t we?
Let’s face it, Blatter himself has stated that he favours a winter World Cup. Four months ago, the FIFA president told this website that playing in the summer would not be a good idea.
“After many discussions, deliberations and critical review of the entire matter, I came to the conclusion that playing the World Cup in the heat of Qatar’s summer was simply not a responsible thing to do,” were Blatter’s exact words.
Since then, FIFA’s top medical expert, the highly respected Michel D’Hooghe, has also expressed in no uncertain terms how staging the tournament in mid-summer in the searing Gulf heat could present a potential health risk to players and fans alike, regardless of Qatar’s much-trumpeted cooling mechanisms.
So did Valcke’s remarks really merit such widespread astonishment? Yes and no. In one respect, there is an argument to suggest that all he was actually doing was expressing a personal opinion and agreeing not only with his boss but other high-ranking FIFA officials.
The problem, however, is that he specifically mentioned mid-November to mid-January as if a deal had already been struck. Worse still, it was the time he said it. Protocol means everything in diplomatic, political footballing circles. Having decided on a specific course of action in gauging the views of each group of stakeholders (redundant though that entire exercise might be), it was perhaps no surprise that many influential figures, not least UEFA boss Michel Platini, reacted with such incredulity.
Having agreed to take things slowly and try to gently persuade sponsors, broadcasters, clubs and leagues that a winter World Cup was the best option, the last thing FIFA needed was to be seen to let the cat out of the bag ahead of time after it had promised there would be no further comment on the matter until all discussions had been exhausted.
This isn’t the first time, of course, that Valcke has been on the receiving end of criticism for impromptu comments. It was he, remember, who sparked a diplomatic row with Brazil by suggesting World Cup organisers needed “a kick up the backside” over slow preparations, a view subsequently shared by Blatter although not with the same wording; he, too, who was at the centre of a leaked email suggesting Qatar had “bought” 2022. On both occasions, Valcke, a seriously astute guy, insisted his actual quotes were badly misinterpreted.
Ironically, of course, he will ultimately almost certainly be proved right over a Winter World Cup, not perhaps in terms of January but certainly November and December.
Whether that would be the right decision remains open to question. Harold Mayne-Nicholls, the FIFA-appointed expert who first cautioned about the dangers of taking the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, believes November would create trouble because almost all over the world – at least in Europe, South America, Asia and Africa – football is in full flow then.
Late May and early June, with games played at night, might end up being the best compromise but this appears to be receding as an option. Possibly because by 2022, the calendar may have changed radically – freeing up November for a Qatar World Cup with players fitter and fresher.
Indeed, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, who runs the highly influential European Club Association, believes shifting European league programmes to the summer, as in the United States, could work well.
“Everywhere, be it Germany, France or England, summer is the best period of the year,” Rummenigge said in a recent interview. “And that is the season we don’t play. In deepest winter, when it is very cold and snowing, we play nearly all the time in conditions that are disagreeable for both players and spectators. It is not logical.”
Rummenigge said both FIFA and UEFA were “seriously thinking” about changing the European league calendar. “My sense is that we are heading straight in this direction,” he said.
It’s a fascinating concept, the knock-on effect of which would be to solve the Qatar World Cup issue once and for all – provided it can be done by then.
Andrew Warshaw is chief correspondent of insideworldfootball.com