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Just a few days ago, FIFA Secretary general Jerome Valcke formally announced that the 2022 World Cup would not be held in June/July as it has been in every tournament since 1930, but would be moved to the Northern Hemisphere Winter of November to January.
The move was made to avoid the 50+ degree heat that would be experienced in the Qatari summer.
This despite the fact that FIFA claimed one of the key planks behind the tiny Gulf Nation being awarded the worlds biggest sporting event was that they would create completely temperature controlled (read: air conditioned so that players don’t die) stadiums.
Mr. Valcke’s announcement was only the formal proclamation of the inevitable, given many key voices inside FIFA, including head honcho Sepp Blatter, were strongly pushing for a winter world cup, despite massive warranted opposition from the major European Leagues who would have see their seasons disrupted.
Last year, Frank Lowy made news by asking for the money FFA poured into their 2022 World Cup Bid back, as they operated on the assumption that the tournament would be held in the Northern Summer.
A better option that both Lowy and CEO David Gallop make loud noises about recommencing Australia’s bid, this time for a December 2022 World Cup held in Australia.
If you believe FIFA and think that the 24 members of the FIFA Executive Committee who voted Qatar as World Cup host did so only considering which nation would host the best World Cup, the reasons that Australia lost out were due to a combination of timezone issues and the uncertainty of what grounds would be available during the tournament, due to the NRL and AFL both being in full swing.
While the timezone issues are unchangeable (at least for Australia, Qatar probably could’ve come up with an ingenious solution that would eventually be thrown out despite it being a key plank of their winning bid), a December World Cup in Australia would see only cricket and the A-League occupying grounds.
For an event as big as the World Cup, cricket could easily schedule itself around the event, and it seems unlikely that the FFA wouldn’t put the A-League on hold for an event as big as the World Cup, leaving nearly all of the great sports stadiums in Australia available for use.
Suppose that the FFA announced this bid, FIFA would have two options: 1.) Ignore them. 2.) Hold a serious bidding process regarding who will host the 2022 Northern Hemisphere Winter World Cup.
Of the five nations that bid for the 2022 world cup (Australia, Japan, Qatar, South Korea and the US), both the US and Japan would be unlikely to rebid.
The US would be unlikely because it would be smack bang in the middle of the NFL and college football seasons, and Japan because Tokyo has been awarded the 2020 Olympics and another major sporting event may just bring the already financially troubled nation to its knees.
South Korea would probably bid again but have a weaker case than four years ago, with a big component of their original bid, North Korean and South Korean unity, now appears further away than ever.
That would leave Australia and Qatar.
Qatar would remain exactly the same place it would be in a Summer World Cup only the temperature has dropped 25 degrees.
They are a tiny Gulf nation, with strict prohibition of alcohol, slave built stadiums and a national team ranked 108th in the world.
Even then, the side is made up mostly of football mercenaries from South America who have been given Qatari citizenship in order to improve the national team’s standard.
Meanwhile, Australia will still be the Australia of the original bid, only without the pesky football codes interfering and average December temperature of 26 degrees, roughly equal to Qatar’s December averages.
Now, the odds of the second scenario occurring is about as likely as Sunderland winning the Premier League this year, but even making such a bold statement would draw more attention to the blight on world sport that is FIFA, causing even more headaches to the already under-fire organisation.
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