News: Qatar World Cup To Be Played in Winter

No they didn't - The General Secretary said something on French Radio.

 

Still not seeing a press release from FIFA on this.

 

There is competition for winter TV viewing....What

 

FIFA says pump the brakes.

http://espnfc.com/news/story/_/id/1674525/fifa-insists-no-decision-made-yet-2022-world-cup?cc=5901

 

What he actually said if you listen to the snippet (and can understand French) is that he thinks it only makes sense to play it in the winter and that he think it will be between November and January. FIFA is often guilty of damage control, but not so much on this one.

 

The winter can have the world cup. But if it want MLS.... ******** that.

 

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGHH!!!!!!!!!!!

Jesus Christ, this is such bullshit. You can't just helicopter in to this topic and say shit like this. It's intellectually insulting and you ought to be embarrassed and no, I'm not going to get into one of your stpid "Joe Paterno is really a great guy" endless arguments. You're just wrong, wrong, wrong.

FIFA"s Executive Committee is the only contracting authority for World Cups. Period.

Last October, Sepp Blatter demanded that they agree to the principle of moving WC 2022 from June/July, as the registration certificates specify, to the Winter, dates to be decided afte consultations.

The Executive Committee refused to do so. Instead, they commissioned a study group to discuss the issues with the various stakeholders which is scheduled to report back next summer.

Let me repeat: Sepp Blatter has no authority to move a World Cup. And Jerome Valcke is an underling, a bureaucrat. He can't authorize a goddam thing.

Do you know nothing about FIFA at all?

For one thing, there are enormous TV contracts with outfits like Fox Sports who, in a combined bid with Telemundo, paid a billion dollars for the rights to a soccer tournament in June and July of 2022.

Think they'd mind much if FIFA decided to move it to the holiday season, the bowl season and the NFL playoffs?

And that's to say nothing about the European leagues who say they would have to start shifting their season schedules two years in advance in order to switch to a March-to-October schedule, and they're not about to try operating without their stars and you can't ask those stars to play 18 months in a row without a rest.

There are so many questions and issues that, frankly, this thread is just stupid.

And to say that "FIFA just announced this"? Run over to fifa.com and link to their media center news feed. They don't change brands of toilet paper in the men's room without a media release. Bet you won't find a "FIFA ANNOUNCES WORLD CUP MOVE" article anyplace. Go head, I'll wait here.

Blatter has been saying this kind of thing off and on for months now because he's an idiot. Now Valcke has spoken out of turn as well. The Executive Committee is furious, with Platini and others livid over the assholes in Zurich pretending that something has been decided.

IT. HAS. NOT.

Now in point of fact, November-December is probably the only thing they can do. The IOC quite literally threatened to expel soccer from the Olympics - and they're not that happy about it anyway because it's the only Olympic sport which refuses to allow their best players to play - if they even THINK about using the January-February window which would step on the Winter Olympics.

And Valcke really blew it when he commented that it would be Nov 15 - Jan 15 since that would bleed the thing over into 2023!!!! Huge violation of the existing contract that would almost surely legally require a re-bid. Moving it out of the summer dates that the contract stipulates is enough of a legal hurdle.

And to start a thread calling it "NEWS" that Qatar 2022 will be in the Winter is just wrong, inaccurate and demonstrates a complete ignorance of the facts.

It was just Jerome Valcke talking and he has quickly backed off his remarks in the face of Michel Platini threatening to cut his balls off.

Get a ********ing clue instead of stumbling across some stupid article and racing to post it like a noob.

 

Epic. ********ing. Rant.

 

21 days later, but epic nonetheless.

 

Timing is only important in comedy.

 

so now we have two viewpoints, who to believe, who to believe....

 

Some day Archer's going to overcome his shyness and start putting his true thoughts and feelings into words...

 

And when that happens?

 

http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/artic...s-november-december-timeline-2022-world-cup-q

 

Sounds like it is happening in Nov-Dec and FIFA gave Fox a no bid contract for 2026 as payment for moving it.

 

I've also heard that.

No doubt that infurates NBC, ESPN and maybe even BeIN.

 

I'm sorry, but what cost are associated with changing a schedule that is 7 years away?

 

About the same amount it would cost FIFA to change to a location that could play in the summertime...

Let's put it this way... Why should 20+ leagues and hundreds of teams pay any extra costs to change their schedules for one tournament 7 years in the future?

I have not deep dived into it yet but have seen where leagues may have to start making calendar changes a few seasons in advance in order to adjust for starting earlier the year of the cup itself and/or playing longer into the summer the months after a Winter World Cup. And then clubs must adjust them back to normal afterwards since the following WC will most likely be a summer tournament again. What is the benefit to the club for doing all this work? Nothing. Who benefits from all this work? Sepp. As much as we like to think of soccer teams as our passion/hobby, there are a lot of owners that look at them for what they are: a business. And doing charity work for Sepp is probably low on their list of things to do.

And remember, a November tournament affects MLS at America's favorite sports time: Playoffs and Championship. "Come see the guys who couldn't make the WC Team battle it out for the MLS Cup" is probably not the marketing dream of Donny G. and the B. of D.

 

If MLS Cup was in early October, that would give players about a month off to join up with their national teams and gear up for the World Cup...not an ideal situation.


http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/31620713
FIFA (naturally) rules out compensation for unhappy clubs.


http://prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com/...021-confederations-cup-wont-be-held-in-qatar/
FIFA says 2021 Confederations Cup won't be held in Qatar.

 

If FIFA can be bribed to put the WC in Qatar, why shouldn't the leagues be able to extort from FIFA?

 

And thanks so much for following my blog.

Always appreciate a faithful reader.