FIFA looking to shift 2022 World Cup to winter: Sepp Blatter

FIFA president Sepp Blatter has said that the governing body of world football is planning to shift the 2022 World Cup to winter. The proposal is due to the intense heat in summer in the host nation Qatar. Medical evidence have shown that players are at a big risk if they play at high temperatures. Qatar, however, has announced that it will host all the matches in air conditioned stadiums. But Blatter is not convinced that it will solve the problem.

“The FIFA World Cup must be a festival of the people, but, for it to be such a festival, you can’t play football in the summer. You can cool down the stadiums, but you can’t cool down the whole country and you can’t simply cool down the ambience of a World Cup. The players must be able to play in the best conditions to play a good World Cup,” Blatter said.

Blatter will discuss the proposal with FIFA’s executive committee in October this year.

“The executive committee will certainly follow my proposal. Then we will have dealt with it for good,” Blatter added.

But it’s not going to be an easy task for FIFA as the Premier League are not happy with the new proposal as they feel that shifting the World Cup to winter will disrupt the domestic season fixtures. Blatter said the move will affect the domestic season for only one season but the Premier League disagrees, saying the disruption will run for at least three seasons.

“The Premier League’s view remains unchanged.We are opposed to the concept of a winter World Cup for very obvious practical reasons that would impact on all of European domestic football,” a Premier League spokesman said.