Players' union adds voice to campaign for winter World Cup 2022

By Andrew Warshaw

December 21 – The union representing professional players worldwide, FIFPro, today added its voice to the growing campaign for the Qatar 2022 World Cup to be held during the winter.

The organisation says that to accommodate the change, the European season would be played in August plus the second half of May and the first half of June.

Although Qatar has the ultimate say in the matter, FIFA President Sepp Blatter and general secretary Jerome Valcke have both stated they would consider switching the tournament to the winter to avoid the searing mid-summer heat even though that would potentially throw up an alternative problem of frequent sandstorms.

Tijs Tummers, secretary of FIFPro’s technical committee, said: “It is not sensible to award a World Cup in the summer to a country with an average temperature of 41ºC in June and July, a midday temperature of 50ºC and above all, extremely high humidity.

“Tourists are advised not to travel to Qatar in the summer months.

“Inhabitants of Qatar leave the country en masse during this period.

“The summer months in Qatar also do not provide suitable conditions for a festival of football such as the World Cup should be, including for the supporters.”

The quality of the football and the working conditions for the players are paramount, says Tummers, who does not buy Qatar’s argument that their revolutionary cooling techniques will counter the fearsome heat during matches and at training camps.

“The organisers have guaranteed that the temperature inside the stadiums and at the training centres will be reduced to 27ºC by means of air-conditioning,” he said.

“That is all well and good, but it obviously does not fit in with ecological thinking, which we expect to be even more widespread by 2022.

“We will of course have to take a careful look at the international match calendar, but FIFPro does not foresee any insurmountable problems in this regard.

“Space will have to be made for the tournament, even though many countries already have a winter break.”

FIFPro believes playing the World Cup in winter could actually help the situation in Europe in certain circumstances, reducing the number of postponed games because of adverse weather and providing fitter, stronger players.

Tummers argued: “In Europe, competitive matches will have to be played in August and the second half of May and the first half of June.

“If you look at what happened last weekend with weather problems in Europe because of heavy snowfall, you could see this as an advantage rather than as a problem.

“And it might perhaps turn out that the players will be fitter at the start of a winter World Cup than was the case last summer at the World Cup in South Africa.”

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