The 2022 World Cup in Qatar should take place in
November and December, a Fifa taskforce has recommended.
The Qatar Foundation stadium in the capital Doha is being designed to seat 40,000
Key football officials met in Doha to discuss a number of options
following fears a summer event would endanger the health of players and fans.
Summer temperatures in Qatar can exceed 40C while those in November and
December drop to around 25C.
Tuesday's recommendation is expected to be ratified by Fifa's executive
committee in Zurich on 19 and 20 March.
Taskforce chief Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa also recommended
that the 2022 tournament should be shortened by a few days.
There has already been speculation that the tournament could start on
26 November and end on 23 December.
However, Fifa has already said there are no plans to reduce the size of
the tournament from 32 teams or 64 matches.
Why was November-December chosen?
The other dates under consideration were May and
January-February.
In a statement, FIFA said a number of options had been
discussed but felt that November-December was the best one because:
- The two bidding cities for the 2022 Winter Olympics - Almaty (Kazakhstan) and Beijing (China) - plan to hold the event from 4-20 February, 2022
- The month of Ramadan begins on 2 April in 2022
- And that consistently hot conditions prevail from May to September in the Gulf state
The statement continued: "The only remaining effective
option is the November-December window."
Sheikh Salman added: "We are very pleased that, after careful
consideration of the various opinions and detailed discussions with all
stakeholders, we have identified what we believe to be the best solution for
the 2018-2024 international match calendar and football in general.
"It was a challenging task and I want to thank all members of the
football community for their productive input and constructiveness in helping
to find a solution that we believe can work for everyone."
What will happen now?
BBC Radio 5 live's sports news reporter Richard Conway said Europe's
leading leagues and clubs had wanted the tournament moved to May but had
"lost this argument".
However, he indicated the row over dates would rumble on.
"It's not not the end of the story by a long way, but organisers
in Qatar will be hopeful that this is the start perhaps of building and
planning for the 2022 World Cup for real," he added.
What will the impact be on the British domestic leagues?
English football's Premier League strongly opposed a winter tournament
given the disruption it would cause to the title run-in and the hole it would
create in the schedules of its broadcast partners.
A World Cup in November and December also affects the Football League,
the FA Cup and League Cup with the domestic season in England running from August
to May.
A recent statement from the Premier League said: "The 2022 World
Cup was bid for and awarded to Qatar as a summer tournament.
"The prospect of a winter World Cup is neither workable nor
desirable for European domestic football."
League and cup competitions in Scotland may also face disruption,
regardless of whether the national team qualifies for the tournament with
players being called up for other international teams.
Wales and Northern Ireland's leagues are less likely to be affected
with the vast majority of their players non internationals.
Peter Coates, chairman of English Premier League side Stoke City,
described the situation as a "disaster".
He told BBC Radio 5 live: "The only saving grace is that we don't
have to think about it for a long time.
"The planning will go on and it will be incredibly difficult. It
couldn't be more disruptive. It couldn't be more messy."
The news will upset some of Europe's other top leagues, who preferred
an April-May option to minimise disruption to their domestic programmes.
What are winter temperatures like in Qatar?
Average temperatures in November are around 29C, dropping to around 25C
by mid-December, slightly cooler than the 35C averages in May.
Tournament organisers had planned to use air-cooling technology they
claimed would lower temperatures within grounds to about 23C.
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