Premier League executive feels Qatar World Cup shift impossible

Richard Scudamore, Premier League Executive

Richard Scudamore, Premier League executive says it would be impossible for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar to be moved to winter.

The move was planned due to the soaring temperatures in the Arab state during that period which may pose dangerous for the players and spectators.

The move would result in the reshuffling of the domestic football calendar also, which the Premier League executive feels would cause a huge amount of disruption.

“They’ve decided to hold the World Cup in the summer in Qatar and that’s their decision,” he told Sky Sports News.

“If that is deemed to be not possible, for whatever reasons FIFA decide and that is their decision not ours as to where they hold the World Cup, then they need to either move the location if it can’t be held in the summer or we can’t just on a whim decide to move it to winter, that’s a very different issue.”

On being asked about the possibility of World Cup being moved to winter instead of summers, he added: “Of course, it’s extremely difficult, nigh on impossible in our view.

“Where they award the summer World Cup to is entirely the FIFA executive committee’s decision, entirely their decision, not our business.

“The international football calendar is one that has to be consulted through; it is not something FIFA can just decide because the whole of world football has an interest in that.

“There is a whole series of complications around that and that consultation process has to be a separate consultation process with leagues and associations on a global basis, not just the Premier League and European Leagues, to make sure it works for everybody.”