The Autumn World Cup | FIFA recommends November-December for Qatar 2022

A FIFA task force yesterday recommended playing the 2022 World Cup in November-December to avoid the summer heat in Qatar.
FIFA said the task force chose the “most viable period” over other proposals to play in January, April or May, dates favored mostly by European soccer. FIFA also said the tournament should be shorter than the current 32-day schedule.
The plan must be approved by the FIFA executive committee, chaired by President Sepp Blatter, at a March 19-20 meeting in Zurich.
Blatter, who is an IOC member, has long favored November-December to avoid clashing with the Winter Olympics, scheduled for February 2022.
“Given that the two bidding cities for the 2022 Winter Olympics — Almaty (Kazakhstan) and Beijing (China) — pledged recently to host the winter games from Feb. 4-20, 2022; that the month of Ramadan begins on April 2 in 2022; and that consistently hot conditions prevail from May to September in Qatar, the only remaining effective option is the November-December window,” FIFA said in a statement.
European clubs and leagues oppose FIFA’s proposal, which shuts them down for several weeks in midseason.
The FIFA executive committee chose Qatar as host in December 2010, when the gas-rich emirate won a five-nation bidding contest to host the tournament in the traditional June-July slot.
Tuesday’s recommendation comes 17 months after the FIFA board — minus several members who have left since the hosting vote after being implicated in corruption — ordered a consultation on finding the best dates in Qatar.
The process was widely seen to have been pre-judged by Blatter, who insisted on November-December as the only realistic choice.
Blatter also reversed his position on the winter World Cup debate. After the December 2010 vote, he said the tournament would be played in summer and the dates could only be changed at Qatar’s request.
Two months ago, Qatar was confirmed as host when a FIFA ethics committee investigation into the 2018 and 2022 bidding contests was closed, concluding that wrongdoing did not influence the results. Russia was chosen as 2018 host.
The FIFA task force will have further meetings to study extending the World Cup qualifying program into early 2022.
FIFA said it is also looking to stage the 2021 Confederations Cup in the usual June-July slot in a different Asian country. Three Asian Football Confederation members — Australia, Japan and South Korea — were losing candidates in the 2022 contest, which also included the United States.
The FIFA-organized Club World Cup, which is traditionally played in December, could be staged in Qatar in 2021 as a World Cup test event, FIFA said. AP