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FFA demands $43m compensation for 2022 World Cup bid

17th September, 2013
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Sepp Blatter has actually been pretty good for football in Australia.
Roar Guru
17th September, 2013
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A number of senior officials from the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) including their senior Medical Officer Michel D’Hooghe, are now recommending that the Qatar FIFA World Cup of 2022 must move to winter to protect the players and their fans.

He will tell delegates at the upcoming landmark FIFA meeting to decide on the date for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar that the risks to hundreds of players and thousands of supporters moving between venues in the extreme heat are too great.

The committee is now expected to agree in principle to move the World Cup to the winter, most likely in November/December 2022.

D’Hooghe’s strong report favouring a move to Qatar’s winter will have a significant impact.

“My position is very clear,” D’Hooghe said.

“From the medical point of view I think it will be better not to play during the hot Qatar summer months.”

On the back of recent comments from Sepp Blatter, the FIFA President and other FIFA World Cup delegates, the Football Federation of Australia (FFA) has mounted a legal challenge against FIFA to sue them for compensation.

The FFA have asked for $43 million, plus additional expenses incurred as part of Australia’s unsuccessful 2022 World Cup bid and for the loss of prestige and earnings as a result of FIFA’s decision.

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The FFA’s bold move comes in the wake of FIFA officials manoeuvring to play the 2022 World Cup in Qatar during the winter months, to avoid the Arab state’s searing summer temperatures and to help cover up their misjudged decision to hand the 2022 tournament to Qatar.

Australia’s bid was predicated on the tournament being played during the European summer, as per tradition, to avoid clash with lucrative club competitions.

The FFA have asked FIFA to make an “in-principle” decision that “just and fair” compensation should be paid to those nations that invested many millions, and national prestige, in bidding for a summer event only to now be told that the tournament will be played in the northern winter.

Australia’s football governing body has also suggested that, should FIFA shift the tournament to Qatar’s winter, “a transparent process should be established to examine the scheduling implications for all leagues and a method developed for agreeing appropriate compensation for those affected.”

Australia and the A-League will not be the only ones impacted.

FIFA can now also expect a long list of legal claims from the hundreds of professional football leagues around the world that will have their main income and showpiece competitions interrupted or even cancelled for the sake of the FIFA tournament.

“Australia invested heavily in the World Cup process and the entire nation was behind the bid,” Lowy said.

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“But now, with increasing speculation about a change that will impact on us as one of the bidding nations, and because our competition will be affected, we have made our position public.

“Our season takes place during the Australian summer to avoid a clash with other local football codes, a move that was necessary because the A-League simply could not get access to the high standard stadiums required as they were being used by other codes during the Australian winter.

“If the World Cup were to be staged in the middle of our A-League season it would impact on our competition, not just for 2022, but for the seasons leading up to and beyond that date.

“Clubs, investors, broadcasters, players and fans would all be affected.

“FIFA has an opportunity now to make the best of a bad situation by embarking on a transparent and orderly approach, unlike the process that led to the original flawed decision in December 2010.

“”IFA champions the notion of ‘Fair Play’ and that principle should apply to the decisions it makes in the coming months.”

The FFA and other football federations, in their correspondences with Blatter, have made thinly veiled comments about the way that the winning 2022 FIFA World Cup hosts were decided.

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The necessity to have to move it to the other side of the northern calendar, only goes to reinforce those suspicions.

Lowy and the FFA are hoping that they will at least get something out of the FIFA 2022 World Cup tournament after all.

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