• World Cup

UEFA members back Qatar winter World Cup

ESPN staff
September 19, 2013
Blatter on Qatar bid


UEFA's 54 member associations have given their support to holding the 2022 World Cup in Qatar in the winter.

It is expected that FIFA's executive committee will confirm the decision to move the World Cup from the summer to the winter in a meeting taking place in Zurich on October 3.

The stumbling block could be when to stage the competition, whether to play the World Cup during November and December 2022 or in January of the same year. FIFA favours the tournament taking place during November/December, while UEFA and British associations want a January staging of football's showpiece event to not disrupt the Champions League.

FIFA vice-president Jim Boyce said: "What has come out of this meeting is that the World Cup cannot be played in Qatar in the summer. Everyone was certainly in agreement about that."

Boyce added that the member associations do not want FIFA to rush into making a decision.

"But what the 54 countries do not want FIFA to do is to make a decision yet on exactly when in the year it is going to be played," he said.

"There is still nine years to go and people feel FIFA should sit down with all the major stakeholders and come up with a solution that would cause the minimum disruption to football. There is plenty of time to do that in my opinion, and hopefully football will be the winner."

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