DOHA — Long seen as inevitable, a 2022 World Cup in November and December is now practically a done deal. A FIFA task force Tuesday recommended playing the tournament in Qatar at the end of the year in 2022 to avoid the summer heat. A Dec. 23 final in Doha is possible as FIFA aims to shorten the tournament from the current 32-day schedule to ease disruption for players, clubs and leagues worldwide. The plan should be approved by the FIFA executive committee, chaired by President Sepp Blatter, at a March 19-20 meeting in Zurich. Blatter, who is an IOC member, has long favored November-December to avoid clashing with the Winter Olympics, scheduled for February 2022. FIFA said its task force chose the “most viable period” over other proposals to play in January, April or May, dates favored mostly by European soccer officials. “Given that the two bidding cities for the 2022 Winter Olympics — Almaty (Kazakhstan) and Beijing (China) — pledged recently to host the winter games from Feb. 4-20, 2022; that the month of Ramadan begins on April 2 in 2022; and that consistently hot conditions prevail from May to September in Qatar, the only remaining effective option is the November-December window,” FIFA said in a statement. European clubs and leagues oppose FIFA's proposal, which shuts them down for several weeks in midseason. Compensation deals must now be agreed upon with the influential European Club Association and European Professional Football Leagues groups. Still, UEFA — which organizes the lucrative Champions League — finally fell into line with FIFA Tuesday. UEFA accepted the apparently inevitable conclusion despite its longstanding preference for a January-February tournament, when the Champions League takes a break, some northern European leagues are in their offseason, and others have a midwinter break. The FIFA task force will have further meetings to study extending the World Cup qualifying program into early 2022. FIFA said it is also looking to stage the 2021 Confederations Cup in the usual June-July slot in a different Asian country. Three Asian Football Confederation members — Australia, Japan and South Korea — were losing candidates in the 2022 contest, which also included the United States. The FIFA-organized Club World Cup, which is traditionally played in December, could be staged in Qatar in 2021 as a World Cup test event, FIFA said. FIFA claimed consensus among its six confederations Tuesday for the November 2022 kickoff. A potential legal obstacle to the winter switch was removed this month when FIFA reached an agreement with its US broadcast partners Fox and Telemundo for rights to the 2026 World Cup. In 2011, Fox had bought the 2018-2022 English-language rights for $425 million in the belief both tournaments would be in summer and not clash with its NFL and college football plans. The latest accord appeared designed to head off any legal action against FIFA. It was announced with little fanfare, no financial details and surprised rival broadcasters who had no idea talks were opened. English Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore later said that all major European clubs are “very disappointed” by the latest announcement. Scudamore, a member of the FIFA task force that met in Doha to recommend a date for the tournament in Qatar, also said he felt “let down” by UEFA over the dates. “The idea that we turned up today, it was a pretty short meeting, to be told that it is going to happen in November and December is very disappointing,” he said. — Agencies
