Valcke: Winter World Cup possible!

It seems FIFA is willing to at least think about a winter 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. That is the impression one gets if one listens to FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke, who is currently in the Guld region for the FIFA Club World Cup being played in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

The idea of a winter World Cup was first raised by Franz Beckenbauer, who happens to be a FIFA Executive Committee member, he had said, "We need to consider this solution of January and February when in Qatar the temperatures are around a pleasant 25 degrees. Why would that not be acceptable? The schedules for the big European leagues are due to be changed in 2012 and that would mean the impact would be less."

And the FIFA Executive Committee is the forum where the issue needs to be raised according to Valcke, "For now that's not the case. It's too early to talk about a change to what is part of the Qatari bid which was the one on which the executive committee members made their decision."

Valcke would add a different dimension to the issue and say, "If you can do so, it would be a solution to open the organisation of the World Cup to a number of countries in this period which is winter in Europe but not winter in the rest of the world."

So it seems the FIFA General Secretary would consider such an option if raised through the right channels to spare everyone involved a World Cup in the desert heat of the Gulf. And hopefully Franz himself will raise the issue in the next FIFA ExCo meeting early next year. And then the FIFA internally could discuss the option and find a solution in everyone's interest.