LONDON: The 2022 soccer World Cup in Qatar should be played in December or January rather than in the middle of the year, bid ambassador Ronald de Boer said yesterday.
The finals were awarded to Qatar by world governing body FIFA in 2010 and are due to be held in the summer months when the temperature can be very high. In December and January, the average is a far less intense 17 degrees.
“I think sometimes a change is good — it would be great to have it in the winter,” Dutchman De Boer, who ended his glittering playing career in Qatar, told delegates at the Leaders In Football business convention at Stamford Bridge. “Everyone will be fit, physically fit, mentally fit and I don’t see a problem with it. For the fans I think it will be great.”
Nasser Al Khater, the organising committee’s communications and marketing director, said for the time being no changes could be made to the schedule.
“When we bid, we bid to host it in summer and until the football authorities ask us to move it, that’s when it will go ahead,” he told delegates. However De Boer, who works for the Qatari FA as a technical advisor, echoed the thoughts of UEFA president Michel Platini, who cast his vote as a FIFA executive committee member for Qatar and strongly favours a winter finals. REUTERS
