Olympic chief Jacques Rogge said on Thursday that FIFA should discuss any plans to hold soccer’s 2022 World Cup in Qatar in the winter to avoid a possible clash with the Winter Olympics.
“It would be sensible that once a decision is envisaged by FIFA to sit around the table to see that this is not harmful for either of the two partners,” the International Olympic Committee (IOC) president told journalists.
However, Rogge said here that it was still “far too premature” to discuss the suggestion made by the president of world soccer’s governing body Sepp Blatter last week.
Blatter said he expected that Qatar’s World Cup would be held in the winter, a month after the emirate was controversially chosen to host the event in 2022 despite its searing summer heat.
While that would represent a historic shift for the world’s most popular sports event, the idea also brought about the possibility for the first time of a clash with the Winter Olympics, which is held in the same year.
“Given that both the IOC and FIFA distribute revenues across the global sport industry, there is a need to ensure that a winter World Cup does not negatively impact on the ability to generate revenues,” said Geoff Walters, of the Birbeck Sports Business Centre at London University.
Rogge insisted that the Winter Games could not budge from its usual slot in the heart of the north’s coldest season, even though FIFA’s proposal for Qatar appeared to be aimed at December or January.
“The bracket we have is roughly the last week of January and the month of February, there is no way we can organize winter games in December or in March,” he said. “Taking into consideration that bracket we have might be very sensible.”
A FIFA spokeswoman said earlier on Thursday that talk of specific dates for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar was “speculative.”
“There had never been any reference to a date,” a FIFA spokesperson said, while confirming that Blatter “expects that Qatar will be a winter World Cup.”
“What he stressed is that first the request must be made by the organizing committee of Qatar,” the spokesperson added.
Blatter has said the issue could be discussed at a FIFA executive committee meeting in March.
While it was bidding, Qatar outlined high tech and innovative plans for cooled stadiums for the World Cup. Its organizers showed little sign of preparing to stage the event in the cooler winter climate in the Gulf.
The Winter Olympics, which are staged every four years, have been held in the northern hemisphere during the coldest or most snowbound period. The IOC will choose a host for 2022 in four years’ time.
In related news, Rogge said on Thursday that the IOC’s ethics body needs evidence from the BBC to carry out its inquiry into senior sports officials after allegations of corruption at FIFA.
The IOC told its ethics commission last month to examine evidence from a BBC program that targeted three senior executive officials during bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
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