Wednesday, 4th December, 2013

Michel Platini admits UEFA and FIFA are at odds over the potential rescheduling of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

FIFA are looking into options for taking the World Cup away from the searing summer temperatures Qatar is used to, though a winter schedule will throw up its own set of problems.

 


Domestic football fixtures will be in a fix, a problem for UEFA to tackle, while FIFA will have to contend with the Winter Olympics issue if the World Cup is moved to January.

Regardless, a decision could be forthcoming once Brazil 2014 is out of the way, and UEFA president Platini told AS: "We're on it.

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"[Shifting to] January does not affect the Champions League and [shifting to] December saves the Winter Olympic Games. We'll see.

"FIFA and UEFA agree on the essentials, which is that to play a World Cup in Qatar in the summer is not the best.

"It is not that you cannot play competitive games. It is that it is very difficult to travel around in the sun. In any case, FIFA has decided not to tackle the issue until the World Cup in Brazil has happened."

However, Platini reiterated Blatter's words from October that there was no question of shifting the World Cup away from Qatar, who won the rights to host the tournament back in 2010.

Platini said: "Maybe you can change the month, but not country. The 2022 edition will be held in Qatar that is for sure."

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