By Andrew Warshaw
October 8 – As debate continues to split opinion over the best time to stage the 2022 Qatar World Cup, a leading representative of Europe’s clubs says if the tournament is switched to January and February, the winter Olympics should move, partly because it means far less to most fans.
Stakeholders involved in the Qatar decision-making process convene for their second FIFA-organised meeting next month to discuss the possible ramifications of a switch from summer to winter because of the scorching heat.
November and December or January and February are the two options being debated if the tournament is moved from its traditional summer slot but that would cause a potential clash with the highly prized winter Olympics, the date for which has not yet been fixed.
AC Milan executive Umberto Gandini, vice-president of the European Club Association that represents some 200 clubs, attended last month’s first meeting on behalf of the clubs.
He believes one solution, if the World Cup ends up being in January/February, might be to shift the winter Olympics instead, the argument being that January/February would limit the damage to Europe’s traditional club calendar since “65 percent of the leagues have winter breaks at that time.”
“The World Cup is one of the major events in the sports landscape [along] with the summer Olympics. But the Winter Olympics are not up there,” charged Gandini.
“When you have such a huge event like the World Cup don’t tell me it’s not possible to move the Winter Olympics a bit especially with it still in the bid process and there are only two candidates [Beijing and Almaty].”
ECA chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, chief executive of German champions Bayern Munich, said it was by no means a fait accompli that Europe’s clubs would agree to a move from summer.
“We are ready to discuss changing the date under one condition – that there is no damage for club football because if we change from summer to November or January it will affect our business,” he told delegates.
“That cost cannot be paid by the clubs. We are not ready to pay it and it has to be made clear to FIFA that they need the goodwill of the clubs or we are not ready to talk or discuss it. The fact is 76 percent of all players in the last two World Cups were contracted by European clubs.”
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