By Andrew Warshaw
November 7 – Angry European clubs claim their case for staging the 2022 World Cup in May has not been sufficiently publicised by FIFA and insist that a winter tournament in Qatar is by no means a fait accompli.
The clubs, together with several top leagues, are unhappy that they were not given an opportunity to fully state their position at last Monday’s Task Force stakeholders meeting and reject the suggestion that their preference for a May tournament was given short shrift.
The meeting was followed by a FIFA statement which claimed the talks had narrowed down the dates for 2022 “to two options – January/February 2022 or November/December 2022”, although the Task Force had been asked to “consider” May.
UEFA boss Michel Platini followed that up by telling reporters this week that the tournament would not be held between April and September.
But the European Clubs Association (ECA) has now hit back by declaring that their May idea, as long as the festivals of Ramadan and Eid were over, was “very welcomed” by many of those who attended Monday’s discussions.
“We were surprised by FIFA’s media release,” said the ECA, which represents over 200 of Europe’s biggest clubs, adding that the FIFA statement “did not correctly reflect the discussions”.
“We will therefore now speak to the leagues and try to elaborate a May alternative, which will be presented at the next meeting” due some time in the New Year.
One high-ranking official close to the talks told Insideworldfootball that FIFA’s statement was “too optimistic” while it is understood many of those who attended on Monday were frustrated at the lack of time for all the relevant arguments to be properly debated.
“We expected to have some debate but all we got were presentations and ‘see you next time’. Frankly this was not appreciated,” said the source. “There was no proper exchange of ideas. People had travelled from all over the world for what ended up as a two-hour meeting.”.
Although Olympic officials have ruled out any clash with the winter Games and say it’s up to FIFA to get themselves out of the current situation, the matter may not be over quite yet.
Informal discussions are believed to be in the pipeline to try and agree on an arrangement that works for both parties. “In other words the World Cup moving slightly earlier and the winter Olympics moving slightly later,” said one European official who has followed the 2022 debate from the start. “To say the tournament shouldn’t be held between May and September is not realistic. People travel to the Middle East all the time during that period.”
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