Fifa will move the 2022 World Cup in Qatar to the winter if Sepp
Blatter keeps his promise to allow its executive committee to decide when it is
held, one of his vice-presidents insisted on Thursday night.
Jim Boyce was
convinced the 27-strong executive committee would vote to change the date of
the tournament at its next meeting in early October after president Blatter
confirmed on Thursday it would be given the chance to do so.
Britain’s Northern
Irish Fifa vice-president initially insisted he could not speak for his fellow
executive committee members after confirming he would vote for a move to the
winter. But pressed over whether there was enough support to ensure the motion
carried, Boyce said: “I don’t think there is any shadow of doubt about that.”
Blatter finally acted
on Thursday to end the uncertainty that has plagued the 2022 tournament since
it was awarded to Qatar in 2010 in a controversial vote.
Fifa had agreed
matches could be played in air-conditioned stadiums in order to combat the
effects of the extreme summer heat in the middle-eastern country, but fears
mounted that the risks to the health of both players and fans were still too
great. Blatter, nevertheless, insisted Fifa would consider moving the
tournament only if the Qataris requested it, resulting in a three-year
stalemate that looks about to end.
He and Uefa president
Michel Platini, the two most powerful men in world football, both now appear on
board with fellow executive committee member Dr Michel D’Hooghe, the Fifa
Medical Committee chairman who has grave concerns about a summer World Cup in
Qatar.
Boyce said: “Forget
about air-conditioned stadiums and that kind of thing, I don’t believe you can
take thousands upon thousands of fans to a country where they basically won’t
be able to walk about from a health point of view.
“It’s 28 degrees in
Belfast and I can’t stick it. Now, you imagine 50 degrees, which is what we’re
talking about here.”
Boyce pleaded for
“common sense to prevail” but any switch to the winter could spark a raft of
legal challenges, with Germany’s Bundesliga
warning in May that the European leagues could try to force a re-run of the
2022 vote.
The Premier League on
Thursday night reiterated its opposition to a move, branding it as “neither
workable nor desirable” but refusing to confirm how it would react were it to
happen.
Telegraph
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