By Andrew Warshaw
December 3 – The president of the International Olympic Committee has re-iterated his call to FIFA not to allow the 2022 World Cup in Qatar to clash with the winter Games of the same year.
FIFA have narrowed down the likely dates for 2022 to January and February or November-December though there is still a considerable lobby of support for bringing the tournament forward just by a month or two rather than going for a full-scale unprecedented winter World Cup because of Qatar’s fearsome summer heat.
As discussions intensify with a final ruling expected in the spring of next year, the IOC boss says he is sure FIFA president Sepp Blatter will honour his pledge not to choose the January-February option.
“I have no reason not to believe (him),” Bach told the BBC. “He made it very clear that a clash of these two great events is in nobody’s interest. And therefore his clear commitment was, and is, that there will not be such a clash.”
Bach says there would be “no winners” if the 2022 winter Olympics – likely to be held in February, with Beijing and Almaty, Kazakhstan, the only candidate cities bidding – and the World Cup coincided.
“A clash would be bad for the international audience who would have two major sports programmes broadcast worldwide, so the public’s attention would be divided,” he said.
“Also for the sponsors, there are some that are common to FIFA and the IOC. To manage these two kind of programmes at the same time would be very difficult, so in the end there would be no winners.
“The athletes and the players would not get the attention they deserve, and for all the other sponsors and broadcasters being involved it would be very, very difficult to manage.
“It’s in the mutual interest that this is not happening and we have this commitment.”
When asked why the Winter Games could not be shifted to accommodate a January/February World Cup, an idea many in Europe are promoting, Bach said that such a move would be “very, very difficult to manage”.
“Our dates, they are clear. We are committed to the future organiser and the Winter Games in particular you need to adapt to the weather conditions in a country so there is no real room to manoeuvre.
“There is a situation which is not easy for football, and reading recent statements by the secretary-general and president of FIFA they realise that their situation at this moment is not the easiest one, and I think they will address this and hope they will address this at their next board meeting.”
As FIFA reels from one setback to another, Bach made the point that it took the IOC years to regain trust after its own Salt Lake City scandal.
“I think nowadays you don’t get any trust anymore, you have to earn trust every day, and this is the way we approach it in the IOC and I’m sure that also FIFA will work hard in this direction.”
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