QATAR 2022 WORLD CUP

Speculation about a potential winter World Cup has percolated ever since the 2022 tournament was awarded to Qatar, the tiny, gas-rich nation in the Middle East, four years ago. On Wednesday, however, a top official with global soccer’s governing body indicated that the expected scheduling switch is all but inevitable. Jérôme Valcke, the secretary general of FIFA and the organization’s second in command, said in a French radio interview that the tournament would most likely be held between mid-November 2022 and mid-January 2023. “If you play between 15 November and the end of December that’s the time when the weather conditions are best — when you can play in temperatures equivalent to a warm spring season in Europe, averaging 25 degrees,” he said. “That would be perfect for playing football.” Twenty-five degrees Celsius is equivalent to 77 degrees Fahrenheit. Qatar’s searing desert heat has raised safety concerns for players and spectators. World Cup tournaments are traditionally played in June or July, and FIFA’s executive committee, which includes Sunil Gulati, the president of the United States Soccer Federation, has created a study group charged with researching the issue. Valcke is leading that committee , and an official announcement is not expected until later this year. FIFA responded quickly to Valcke’s comments, issuing a news release in which it emphasized that no decision on the timing of the event had been made. “The precise event date is still subject to an ongoing consultation process which involves all main event stakeholders,” it said, a reference to groups from national federations and player advocacy groups to sponsors and television networks. It added: “As the event will not be played until eight years’ time, the consultation process will not be rushed and will be given the necessary time to consider all of the elements relevant for a decision.” Still, all signs point to a calendar shift that would have significant ramifications around the soccer world. A winter tournament would require that many top stakeholders make significant changes to long-range plans, including the Fox television network, which has stated its reluctance to broadcast a World Cup during the N.F.L. season. In September, a Fox Sports spokesman told The New York Times that the network had bid on the tournament games “with the understanding they would be in the summer as they have been since the 1930s.” The English Premier League has also indicated its preference to play the tournament during summer, since a winter tournament would force it and the rest of Europe’s top leagues to take a midseason break in competition of a month or more, which could unsettle the leagues’ relationships with their business partners. One development that seems highly unlikely is a shift of venue away from Qatar, which won the bidding for the tournament in 2010 — beating out the United States, England and other countries — in surprising circumstances, given its lack of soccer infrastructure and history. Sepp Blatter, FIFA’s president, has repeatedly stated his desire to hold the tournament in Qatar, and he has criticized European officials for what he sees as intransigence to change. Michel Platini, another member of the executive committee, has made similar statements, including one in which he noted that FIFA has respected the European domestic league calendar for “150 years” and added, “For one month in 150 years you can change.” Moving the World Cup forward on the 2022 calendar does not appear to be an option; the new International Olympic Committee president, Thomas Bach, said in September that he had spoken with Blatter and received assurances that the tournament would not be moved up to the cooler months of January or February, when the 2022 Winter Olympics are scheduled. And with the world’s biggest club tournament, the UEFA Champions League, holding its semifinals and final in April and May each year, that would rule out a spring World Cup as well. Even as FIFA sought to portray Valcke’s comments as his opinion, player advocacy groups who have warned of the dangers of playing in searing temperatures seized on them as a positive sign. FIFPro, the worldwide union of professional players, confirmed that it was being consulted on the possibility of a move to winter and restated its opposition to a summer tournament on safety grounds. “While it goes against a longstanding tradition to hold a World Cup between June and July, common sense looks set to prevail,” its statement said. At least one member of FIFA’s executive committee, Jim Boyce of Northern Ireland, was taken aback by Valcke’s comments. Boyce told Sky Sports that he was “totally, completely shocked, to be honest” by Valcke’s comments, and he restated FIFA’s official position that no decision would be made before this year’s World Cup in Brazil, and possibly not until 2015. “Whether Jérôme was making a personal opinion or not, I just don’t know,” Boyce added, “but I can honestly confirm this has not been discussed by the executive committee of FIFA.”