The 2022 World Cup must be held in November or December, the head of FIFA’s task force looking into dates for the Qatar tournament has told British media.
Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa, the Asian Football Confederation head, had ruled out May, the preferred option of Europe’s top leagues and clubs, the BBC reported.
After the last task force meeting in November last year, FIFA secretary-general Jerome Valcke said January and February 2022 or November and December 2022 were the preferred options, but al-Khalifa said a January and February World Cup was not desirable because it would clash with the Winter Olympics.
“We don’t want it to collide during that period,” the BBC quoted him as saying. “Stakeholders are concerned about playing in the summer, so we have to change to winter. That’s January or November. They have to make a choice — either A or B — but I think everybody agrees that in January or February it’s difficult to play for the reasons that I mentioned before [the Winter Olympics]. The only option that I see is November, December.”
The task force was due to meet in Doha later yesterday for the third and final time, and was expected to make a recommendation to the FIFA executive committee.
On the basis of that recommendation, the final decision on the long-running saga should then be made in Zurich, Switzerland, on March 20.
The European Clubs’ Association said on Monday it still hoped to push for a May World Cup at the Doha meeting to lessen the impact on their competitions.
Al-Khalifa said he hoped his proposal would be “a done deal” even before the meeting, the BBC reported.
“Hopefully, we can settle this issue once and for all,” he said.
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