By Andrew Warshaw
March 10 – Just over a week before Fifa is expected to announce the dates for the 2022 winter World Cup in Qatar, the official who analyzed the credentials of all nine canddiates for 2018 and 2022 has presented what he believes is a workable timetable – but only if significant tweaks are made.
Harold Mayne-Nicholls, who led Fifa’s technical inspection team in the build-up to the vote in December, 2010, has come up with a blueprint he believes Fifa’s executive committee should consider when it meets on March 19 and 20 in Zurich to rubber-stamp a recommendation to break with decades of tradition and play the Qatar World Cup in November and December instead of summer.
Fifa president Sepp Blatter has already promised that the tournament will not stretch into the period leading up to Christmas and Mayne-Nicholls, who was at one stage considering whether to run for Fifa president in May, has proposed a Nov- 18-Dec 17 timetable with the following breakdown:
Opening Game: Friday 18 november
First phase: 18 nov to 1 dec.
Second phase: 2 dec to 5 dec.
Quarter final: 8 and 9 dec.
Semifinals: 12 and 13 dec.
3rd and 4th place playoff: 16 december
Final: Saturday 17 december
His suggested date of the final may not work given that Fifa and the organisers are keen to stage it a day later to co-incide with Qatar’s national day.
Mayne-Nicholls’ proposed preparation time makes for interesting reading given the complaints of Europe’s clubs and leagues about being squeezed. Release of players, he says, would be November 6 with no Fifa dates to be used whatsoever in October in order to accommodate clubs’ needs.
Breaking on Nov 6, however, would give national teams only 12 days to prepare, at least a week less than is traditionally the case.