Sepp Blatter: World Cup will not be decided by European whims

Sepp Blatter has called on European nations to be more flexible for the greater good of world football (Getty Images)

FIFA President Sepp Blatter has defended his stance of supporting the switching of the FIFA World Cup from a summer event to a winter event for the World Cup in Qatar in 2022 in an interview on Inside World Football that was published on Monday.

Blatter insisted that changing the timing of the World Cup is in tune with the modern globalisation of the sport and that the federations that are complaining should have been aware of the possibility of change, saying that it was covered by the documents in the bidding process.

“The loudest critics, the ones who should know better because they signed the exact same bidding documents as Qatar did… must know that point 1.2.1 stipulates that the 22nd edition of the FIFAWorld Cup is ‘scheduled to take place’ in June and/or July ‘in principle’,” Blatter was quoted as saying on insideworldfootball.com.

“It does not say that it ‘must’ take place in these months, nor is it a ‘condition sine qua non’ to host the World Cup in June and July. What the document does is express FIFA’s wish to host the World Cup in June or July.”

European countries, particularly England, have been unhappy with the idea of having the World Cup in January and February as it clashes with their domestic leagues while a June/July World Cup would be held during the close season.

Blatter is aware that Qatar stadia would have cooling technology available during the summer, when temperatures can reach 50 degrees Celsius, but insisted that playing in the summer was “simply not a responsible thing to do.”

The FIFA president insisted that more flexibility was required to give a larger range of countries the chance to host the World Cup, rather than cater to European teams needs every time.

“If we maintain, rigidly, the status quo, then a FIFA World Cup can never be played in countries that are south of the equator or indeed near the equator,” he added.

“We automatically discriminate against countries that have different seasons than we do in Europe and we make it impossible for all those who would love to host the world’s biggest game in a global tournament to ever get the chance to do so.”

He went on: “I think it is high time that Europe starts to understand that we do not rule the world anymore and that some former European imperial powers can no longer impress their will on to others in faraway places and we must accept that football has moved away from being a European and South American sport.

“It has become the world sport that billions of fans are excitedly following every week, everywhere in the world.”

Blatter said he would raise the issue at FIFA’s next executive committee meeting on October 3-4.