The FIFA Thread

What will happen - nothing. Sepp Blatter will stick that report through a shredder.

It never fails to frustrate me how the biggest sport in the world has an incredibly corrupt and inadequate governing body.

It never fails to frustrate me how the biggest sport in the world has an incredibly corrupt and inadequate governing body.

Fifa has admitted for the first time that the 2022 World Cup in Qatar could be moved to winter if medical reports show summer temperatures would be dangerously high.
Play media

Jerome Valcke, the general secretary of football's world governing body Fifa, has previously suggested that Qatar would have to make the request to move the tournament.

But speaking at the International Football Association Board meeting in Edinburgh - the body that governs the laws of football - the Frenchman became the first senior Fifa official to say that the event could be moved if Fifa received strong medical advice that it needed to do so.

"Maybe the Fifa Exco [executive committee] will say based on medical reports or whatever: 'We really have to look at playing the World Cup not in summer but in winter.'"

Qatar, where temperatures can exceed 40C in summer, has previously stated that any decision on moving to a winter date would have to be made by 2014 in order to give national leagues and competitions sufficient time to reorganise their calendars.
More to follow.

I don't see the problem with hosting it in winter.

You can't play football in 50C heat, that's insane. If you're saying you can't move the world cup then you're basically saying no Middle-East, North African etc country can hold it.

What would you rather watch a good world cup in Winter or a ridiculously slow paced World Cup in June?

The World Cup is usually held in the northern hemisphere summer. During this season in Qatar, the temperature can get to 50 °C (122 °F).

Qatar says that this will not be a problem for it hosting the World Cup. A section from Qatar 2022 Bid official site explains:

"Each of the five stadiums will harness the power of the sun's rays to provide a cool environment for players and fans by converting solar energy into electricity that will then be used to cool both fans and players at the stadiums. When games are not taking place, the solar installations at the stadia will export energy onto the power grid. During matches, the stadia will draw energy from the grid. This is the basis for the stadiums’ carbon-neutrality. Along with the stadiums, we plan to make the cooling technologies we’ve developed available to other countries in hot climates, so that they too can host major sporting events."

Such cooling techniques will be able to reduce temperatures from 45 to 25 degrees Celsius (113 to 77 °F), which would be comfortable for players and spectators during matches, the bid also proposes these cooling technologies to be used in fan-zones, training pitches and walkways between Metro stations and stadiums.

However, these cooling technologies have never been tested within big stadiums and the Qataris are not able to guarantee that it will work. It also remains unclear how the Qataris will keep the fans cool outside the stadiums

Tonnes of countries change their schedule to suit the world cup, such as almost the entire southern hemisphere.

Most northern hemisphere countries have winter breaks anyway, England are one of the very few who don't.

There's no point complaining that the World Cup is in Qatar, that's already final. The question is whether it should be in winter and it makes sense for it to be.

Apart from the fact it completely fucks up 2 or 3 seasons of the world wide footballing schedule for the purpose of giving a tournament to a country with the population about the 10th of Wales, most likely because they bribed Fifa officials and in order to deny that population political freedoms?

There's massive problems with the World Cup in Qatar full stop.

Hmm, Goran Pandev claims that his vote for FIFA Manager of the Year was changed, his first choice of Jose Mourinho was removed and replaced with Del Bosque. I've no idea if his second and third choices of Mancini and Klopp were originally in those places or if Del Bosque was originally in one of those spots.

Either way, Pandev isn't the first to mention stuff like this...

Pandev lied

TBF you could easily mock that up with a scanner and MS Paint or something.

Done it many a time for customs documents in my old job.

Why would FIFA release a mocked up document? They're corrupt, not stupid

Fifa president Sepp Blatter, speaking today to Asian Football Confederation delegates in Mauritius, said of their candidate for election to Fifa's executive committee: "You have a candidate, and a good candidate and a good looking candidate, Moya Dodd."

Dodd is one of four women standing for election this Friday to Fifa's powerful executive committee.