The European Clubs’ Association on Tuesday contradicted FIFA President Sepp Blatter’s assertion that a summer World Cup in Qatar in 2022 was off the table, pointing out thatcooling technology for stadiums and fields was an integral part of Qatar’s successful bid to host the competition.
“It would be very, very important to have strong arguments to convincethe European game to disrupt its season in favor of a World Cup in another (earlier or later) part of the year,” ECA Vice Chairman Umberto Gandini said. “There must be very, very good reasonsfor moving the World Cup from its conventional slot because it will jeopardize the entire game worldwide. “We need to have more information before accepting the fact that our season will bedisrupted.”
On Monday, Gandini took part in the opening meeting of the FIFA task force, which included representatives from national associations, players, leagues, as well as the localorganizing committee, to try and decide what time of the year to hold the Qatar World Cup. Three slots were put forward: January/February, June/July and November/December.
“What’s going tohappen to football in the world if we move the World Cup from its natural slot to either January/February or November/December. This is also something that we need to look at,” Gandini said,adding that when Qatar was awarded the tournament in December 2010, it was widely accepted that the decision was based on hosting the tournament in June and July and using cooling technology.”Technology was a very important part of the bid they won, FIFA is fully aware of that,” he said.