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Qatar 2022 will not be held in the summer
Fifa Secretary-General Jerome Valcke hints at date-change while vice-president denies any decision has been reached.
FIFA Vice-President was ‘shocked’ and ‘surprised’ after hearing Valcke’s comments on the date-change [Getty Images]
The 2022 World Cup to take place in Qatar will not be held in June-July, says FIFA Secretary-General Jerome Valcke.
“Frankly, I think it will happen between the 15th of November and the end of December because that is when the weather is more favourable. It’s more like springtime in Europe,” he told France Inter Radio.
FIFA Vice-President Jim Boyce, however, told Sky Sports News that he was ‘shocked’ and ‘surprised’ by Valcke’s comments as the decision was yet to be made by the FIFA executive committee.
“It absolutely has not been decided as far as the executive committee are concerned,” Boyce said.
“It was agreed all the stakeholders should meet, all the stakeholders should have an input and then the decision would be made, and that decision as far as I understand will not be taken until the end of 2014 or the March executive meeting in 2015.
“As it stands it remains in the summer with no decision expected until end of 2014 or March 2015.”
In October, the sport’s governing body delayed making a decision on whether to play the tournament in the winter saying it was setting up a consultation process to decide when the finals should be held.
At the time, it announced it would reach a conclusion sometime after this year’s World Cup in Brazil.
Valcke’s surprise announcement on Wednesday comes more than three years after Qatar was originally awarded the tournament in December 2010 ahead of the US, South Korea, Japan and Australia.
Its bid was based on a summer World Cup, despite the searing temperatures.
Qatar has argued all along that it will build air-conditioned stadiums using environmentally-sustainable technology. However, there have been concerns for visiting fans and about training facilities for teams.
