Today, a FIFA task force ruled out the possibility of playing the 2022 tournament in May and said a clash with the Winter Olympics, held in January, would be undesirable. The task force, led by Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa, said that the 2022 tournament should therefore take place in November and December and could be shortened, though FIFA's executive committee still has to ratify the recommendation in Zurich next month. In response, European Club Association (ECA) chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge thinks that Europe's clubs deserve to be compensated if the 2022 Qatar World Cup is staged in November and December.
I can't decide if I'm excited at the prospect of watching the WC on Thanksgiving morning, or saddened by missing out on the Boxing Day orgy.
Part of me thinks that Blatter is announcing the date change now so he can blame the backlash for moving it to another country. Certainly Qatar must be having buyers remorse at this point. The whole plan makes no sense.
There are going to be so many plot twists to this thing in the coming months. Way too many people in power stand to lose the one thing that makes people put up a fight in this crazy world: money. Putting the World Cup in Qatar was never going to make a 78 year old man look like a visionary, especially not one as loathed as Sepp Blatter. I'm not saying it won't happen in Qatar. But going down this path means that everything sacred about football (the calendar, leagues, tournaments, cups, affiliations, games, players, etc.) is now up for a total re-think. UEFA and/or whomever else stands to lose the most money from this will find a way to get it back. A bona fide European super league would not be out of the question.
I'm still predicting the US is going to hand down a few indictments related to blazer and warner and pretty much the whole fifa family will be involved. But yes, if you wondered why FIFA just gave fox a no bid contract extension to '26... This is why.
I heard the Fox extension on the radio this morning, but appeasing a single TV network is just the tip of the iceburg. In the system we have today, the best players in the world play for 11 months out of the year every other year, and the largest clubs in the world pay them to do so. What happens between the leagues and the clubs and the players when seasons get shortened, or players go off to play for free for their nation during the middle of a club schedule? Who's going to appease the FA when their Christmas period becomes an afterthought, or is cancelled altogether? Who's appeasing the players when their 2022 contracts are structured to only pay them for the games they play? Who are the fans that are going to pay money to watch these false competitions happen? Here's your Arsenal line-up during the Qatar World Cup (if it happened this year) Martinez, Bellarin, Gabriel, Hayden, Monreal, Coquelin, Arteta, Ramsey, Bielik, Gnabry, Akpom. Really reaching on the attacking front, we probably would not have loaned out Sanogo in this situation, or Jenkinson, for that matter. But seriously, this squad is bare bones and assumes zero injury. The reality is likely that most of the major clubs could not realistically field a full squad during a world cup. The leagues would all have to shut down for a few months for the world cup to happen. How's that work exactly, and who's paying to watch it? Bottom line, FIFA . . . Where's the money going to come from?? Is Qatar going to reimburse the entire world of football for the priveledge of hosting this World Cup??
Its not they would have a problem doing that. They have been practically pumping money from the ground for the past 40 years or so.
There have got to be easier ways to cash in on your position at FIFA than awarding 2022 to Qatar, and then jumping through all kinds of hoops to ensure it goes through. They have already lost a lot of sponsors, and will be negotiating from a place of weakness when signing up replacements. Then you have the extension given to Fox and Telemundo which will cost FIFA a few hundred million. Finally, there is all the press scrutiny and shit that has been hurled at them since 2011, and will continue until well after 2022 has concluded. FIFA could have taken a fraction of the money they have forfeited and paid all of the influential parties salary increases, bonuses, and "sharply raised per diems" and come out ahead. The shit show caused by this just doesn't seem worth it. Things are only going to get worse as we get closer to 2026, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a few lawsuits pop up once Nov-Dec becomes official.
You guys will have to realize something. FIFA isnt beholden to fans. And if you think the clubs will make a fuss, look at who the major sponsors are for big European clubs now. Its why Wumger had no problem saying he supports moving the games to November and December. Nothing is happening.
So they're cancelling the World Cup? Somebody may have to explain this to me like I'm a 2 year old, but what does UEFA need FIFA for, exactly? If the biggest clubs in football who employ the best players in the world and are supported on a global scale by people who watch them play football, then how does FIFA have the leverage to force these clubs to re-think how they make money for 2-3 years next decade? The World Cup is an amateur event that leases its participants from these clubs. The World Cup makes money for FIFA and its member nations. It doesn't make the clubs or the players a dime (directly). I mean, maybe you're right that the clubs and the leagues will ultimately cave and go along with FIFA, but that's not the vibe I'm getting right now. The vibe I'm getting is "lawsuits are coming, and quickly". These nations of oil had better have a lot of cash, because a whole bunch of hands just opened up.
well what did they do wrong? They're still putting on a summer world cup as promised.. just didn't state which hemisphere it would be summer in at the time... it will be a southern hemisphere summer in the northern hemisphere world cup lol...
UEFA is a continental footballing confederation under FIFA. Just like CONCACAF, CAF, CONMEBOL, AFC, and Oceania. Michel Platini voted for and supported the Qatar bid. And I imagine most of the leagues are pissed about this but will not say anything because the clubs get so much money from the Gulf states and will not want to mess up that money train. The only noise you will hear is from the media, but these clubs will stay quiet. A world cup will happen in November-December.
i'm already tired of this and it's only 2015. like it or not, the world cup is going to be in qatar, in winter. i don't particularly like it, but i really don't have the energy to be upset about it. the people moaning about it disrupting the english festive games really should take a step back and look at the big picture. if you're going to bitch about the qatar world cup there are much more important issues at hand than changing the fixtures around for a season or two. think the overall quality of play will probably be higher. players will be much fresher.
I've been hearing this on the news all day and personally I don't mind having a winter world cup. They hold the Asian cup and African Cup at that time and nobody complained about that, you add that most leagues are on their winter breaks during this time except the EPL and to be blunt the only thing that's going to be truly disrupted is the Boxing match. As for Qatar bribing the Fifa and Fifa being a bunch of money S.O.B's I totally agree with everything that's been said but the sad fact of the matter is that Blatter and his cronies couldn't care less about football they're all in it for the money, so they lose a couple of sponsors no problem Putin's Gazprom and Qatar Airways will pull up the slack. They'll reward themselves with a bonus for handing out a World Cup (which is the only thing that they do) but wait there were 2 world cups awarded so they should get double the pay and we'll need to hide it from the tax man, ow wait were already in Switzerland. Having said all that Rewinder does have a point: The simple answer is their eyes were bigger than my stomach, they got swept away with all the garish gold thrown at them. If Australia or the USA had won the bid illegally there might of been a few murmurs but it wouldn't of come close to the 2002 Winter Olympic bid scandal because people know they could hold it and they love their sport, heck while I'm at it why isn't this forum called the 2018 and 2022 WC drama thread? because we all know that Russian were just as bad as Qatar, but because it's in the middle of a desert which people couldn't even find on a map it smacks of corruption too much on the nose and the Fifa officials can't bullcrap their way out of it. So now they spend all their time trying to justify their decision. Personally I'm sort of glad that this whole Qatar thing happened because Fifa and Blatter have been telling small lies for years while they line their pockets but this time everyone knows what's coming out of their mouths is utter crap and are willing to finally do something about it. I just hope it's before the 2022 WC and Blatter and his cronies are behind bars watching the opening ceremony.
Yeah I agree if you're going to have a go at Qatar you should at least be complaining about the dictatorship they're under, the use of slave labour to build the stadiums and the over inflated oil prices that they've been fixing, which they've been using to prop their totalitarianism leaders.
I wonder what the impact of putting this during the NFL Playoffs and the holiday season (Thanksgiving and Christmas in the US) will have? In recent years, the US has had the most requests for tickets to matches. I do not know the TV viewing but it must have been large in the US last year. So, they are going to lose a lot of US people going to the matches or watching them on TV.
I can tell you right now that the number of ticket requests from the United States for the Qatar world cup will be 37.
most of the ticket requests have come from the united states, but a sizable number of those requests have been from fans of other nations. for example, a good amount of the fans at colombia's matches last year actually live in the us. based on this i can't imagine the nfl season will decrease those numbers much. of course staging it in qatar probably will.
What makes it even worse is the timing. The World Cup is going to badly need a return to normalcy after a few years of the Blatter and Putin Show, and instead they're going to get the Qatar insanity. Even so, FIFA has picked up such a bad odor in recent years that I'm actually glad that the 2022 World Cup isn't going to be in the United States. We need that close an involvement with Blatter like we need a hole in the head.
We'll they're screwed from the US standpoint. I am not tuning in to see Algeria vs Portugal when its Seahawks vs Packers or Patriots vs Colts. Hell Ravens vs Pats or Colts vs Denver I'd still watch over 90% of the WC early matches.
It was just an example, point is I'm not tuning in during any NFL playoff game, unless its a USA match thats super important. I don't care if its Giants vs SF or SD vs Buffalo
Don't know whether to laugh uncontrollably or get an icepack after another epic facepalm over the news that FIFA will not award Qatar the 2021 Confederations Cup due to it's hot summer weather. http://www.timeslive.co.za/sport/soccer/2015/02/25/fifa-to-move-2021-confederations-cup-from-Qatar
is this really a big deal though? the world cup is going ahead in winter and it would be a complete contradiction to have the confederations cup in summer. although the confederations cup is a nice tournament to watch on tv, it really isn't very important. might as well give it to another country that wouldn't be able to host a world cup.