Platini is a joke!!!

[pilgrim4life]

Uefa president Michel Platini has revealed he is willing to move European club competitions to enable the 2022 Qatar World Cup to be held in winter.

Temperatures reach 50C in Qatar during June when World Cups traditionally start - but Platini says the tournament could be played earlier in the year.

He said: "If we play in winter, [it is] not a problem to organise it."

The Qatar bid beat the United States, Australia, Japan and South Korea to win the right to host the 2022 World Cup.

Qatari officials have plans that include air-conditioned stadiums and are researching the potential creation of artificial clouds which would alleviate some of the heat in the Middle East country.

However, the possibility of moving the World Cup to winter was also suggested and Platini has offered to alter the schedules of European competitions.

He said: "If the people can't come to enjoy it [because it is too hot], it's not good. Instead of stopping the [European] season in May, you play until June, then stop in December. Where is the problem?"

The Uefa president also reiterated his belief that the decision to hand the World Cup to Qatar - whose international side is ranked 95th in the current Fifa rankings - was correct as he believes it is the right time to play the competition in an Arab nation.

He added: "I think it's nice to go to another part of the world, with people who have never hosted the World Cup.

"I think it was a good decision but now we have to adapt to when and where the best moment is to play this World Cup in Qatar."

[Crazy Neil]

It''s all about MONEY,sport and the fans don't matter to FIFA..

[pilgrim4life]

i know, he is making a mockery out of european football!

[Poros]

You lot are really switched on, how long has it took you to realise it. At the risk of me being branded as a racist or heretic, he's French!
Who is prepared to do something about it. From acorns?
I will bet no one.

[Steviemas]

yep, one big French anti-english scumbag. No Poros you are not racist, no such thing as a French race. 

[Fairfax]

The trouble with the French is that they are arrogant, self-opinionated; consider themselves superior to everyone else, and think that they should be ruling the world; just like us!   

[Steviemas]

Vive La France! Once more unto the breach dear friends, once more!

[wayne, york pilgrim]

It''s all about MONEY,sport and the fans don't matter to FIFA..

does sport and fans matter in any leval of pro footy?

[AJHallgarth]

I've been to Qatar. It was November and it was bloody hot then, almost hitting 40C in the middle of the day. Playing football in those conditions would be tough, but June?!

I honestly cannot see it going ahead as planned, although they do have a decade to come up with a solution. It won't be moved to winter as the TV companies & big European clubs have enough muscle to block it. The best idea I can think of is to play the games late in the evening - say 6pm, 9pm & midnight kick-offs local time. It's not ideal but at least the temperatures would be bareable.

[dubai camel]

Live next door to Qatar. There are a huge number of issues, the heat being at a problem for sure, currently 30'C and it's December. Evening kick-offs can be even worse as the humidity kicks in, can be foggy here at 34'C !!!!

Even with a/c stadiums the problems remain. What are the fans going to do? Apart from the fact there is nothing to do in Qatar, it would be too hot to move outside of
their hotel ...

Alcohol is illegal, except for in bars in hotels. Homosexuality is illegal. Cursing is illegal.
Political protest illegal.

There is talk of the Qatar govt, shipping out the entire Qatari population for the period of the World Cup .....
Interestingly you will be able to get all the population into the stadiums when they are complete. There will be a series of white elephants... local league has few teams and BUFC attendance would compare favourably.

Of course it was all about the money.
Building stadiums = loads of cash sloshing around

[dubai camel]

And now Platini has announced that tickets per country is limited to 5,000 !
Supported by the fact that international transport systems are not good enough, then why give the countries the Euros in the first place? Oh and of course more tickets for the hosts, like in South Africa with half empty stadiums as ticket prices where too high.

If I was cynical one might suggest there will be more tickets for his friends, prior to him running for FIFA president .... mmm there's a thought.

Hosts being seeded was bad enough and has skewed the whole tournament as a result.

[rob.1987]

Have been watching this one for a couple of days and thought now was the time to throw my thoughts in!
I currently live in Qatar and football out here is getting more and more popular. Al Saad for example, very recently won the Asian Champions League and as a result, will be playing in the Fifa World Club Championship. There are a number of well known players plying their trade in the league system here and it’s an enjoyable experience to go along and watch the domestic football.
Moving the World Cup to the winter would be outrageous although it would make conditions bearable so should that happen, it would work. Temperatures here for the last week or so have been in the mid 20's and with the breeze, the majority of the players competing would actually find it cooler than what they are used to. Dubai Camel, it is not worth comparing the Dubai weather with the Qatari weather. I was in Abu Dhabi a couple of weeks ago where it was consistently much much warmer than it has been here for a good month or so here. Qatar is not protected at all by the wind can be very strong this time of year. We have had a fair few rainy days too in the last month also.
It's harsh to say that spectators will have nothing to do when there are no games on. I've been here a decent amount of time now and am never stuck for things to do in my spare time. It's a place that is growing at a vast rate, much unlike the Emirates who have suffered from the global economic crisis. Qatar has not.
The Qatari government have always said that they will relax the alcohol law when the World Cup is on and it would not surprise me if the law is relaxed before then anyway. Last week, pork was made available here when it has previously been prohibited. Homosexuality is indeed forbidden however so to are public displays of affection - it's not as if a man and a woman can kiss publicly where as 2 people from the same sex cannot.
The legacy aspect that you mention, Dubai Camel, is also a little unfair. The stadiums that are to be constructed are going to be modular and there are various different ways in which Qatar is giving back to the world once the World Cup has finished. Worth looking into as it’s very impressive.
The Qatari's are very confident that they can deliver an exceptional World Cup and I share the view. There will be many challenges but a lot of the accusations that have been thrown at the country have been very harsh, in my opinion. A lot of people heard they had won the bid and, without doing their research, dismissed it. Those that have seen the proposal and understand why they won will be the ones that will attend and will be the ones that will have an enjoyable experience. The folk who are not actually interested in understanding why they were chosen will no doubt not attend and will miss out as a result.
Sure, I'm not naive enough to think that money did not place the main role in this however at the same time, I can see (especially by experiencing general development in Qatar first hand) how the bid was won based on the proposal. Fifa openly said that they wanted to take the World Cup to a new place and Qatar answered.

[Ed Kandi]

Excellent post Rob  8)

[dubai camel]

Thanks Rob.

The weather in Qatar is a little a different, the further up the gulf you go the more extreme the climate is e.g. cooler winters and warmer summers, but in summer in Dubai, or Doha is very hot and humid ..... whether (no pun intended) its 48"C and 70% humidity or 42'C and 60% humidity is a bit irrelevant.

The modular concept of stadium building was first muted early on in the bid, but talk of reconstructing them in other developing nations has gone decidedly quiet. I understand they are now looking at reducing the air temperature by up to 10 degrees without using air conditioning.... or moving to a winter tournament. All of which is a little harsh on other bidding nations to find that it has been awarded to a country that hasn't yet decided quite how it going to deal with the potential problems. Air conditioning stadiums on that scale hardly fits with FIFA own environmental criteria either.

Be interesting to go back and re read FIFA's own technical and logistical reports on the bidding nations....

Ironically the England bid for example was putting much more back into the world football community because it wasn't going to have to spend billions on stadium construction.

The Qatar local league is on the rise, with a positive input from foreign players, but will the World Cup really make any difference to its development?

I am still not sure what ten of thousands of supporters will do whilst in Qatar..... I had a good time in Qatar 16 years ago when there was 'nothing' there, but its not quite the same for football fans in 45'C heat.

My worry for Qatar is that some of the infrastructure will become a white elephant. Is the hotel building that is planned sustainable in the long run for example?

Why did Qatar win the World Cup -  if the often sited reason is to spread football into new regions, it would have been much better to have spread the World Cup over the gulf region, therefore spreading its appeal and costs and creating a sustainable legacy, with one or two world class stadiums in each country. (yes there are political issues but if Blatter had wanted it it would have happened!).

To learn from Dubai perhaps - one man's legacy is another man's folly.

In the end Qatar will deliver - the stadiums will be impressive, fans will go because they will follow their teams anywhere and everywhere - but better than other places, I remain sceptical. One issue is whether the stadiums will be filled as the local population is limited in number in terms of football supporters. Aside from a handful of countries who have a large following, most tournaments are dependent on local fans to swell the crowds. South Africa had its fair share of empty seats at many of the games.

Whether it will be better than other World Cups will always be debated and is a good debate to have.

In terms of FIFA transparency, the criteria was not that the World Cup had to be in a new place, it may well well have been what Blatter wanted, but that's different from the bidding criteria, isn't it? If that was their intention then that should have been explicit and countries who have already hosted not be allowed to bid and thus not waste everyone's time and money.

[rob.1987]

I believe it was more preference that the 2018 and 2022 World Cups were to be taken to new regions rather than a requirement, hence not being part of the criteria. I imagine that Qatar and Australia earned an extra point for being new territory however I can’t imagine Fifa disregarding everything else and simply voting because that’s the criteria! Qatar has consistently stated that whilst it will be solely hosting the World Cup, it does want to put the whole Arab world on the map and showcase the Gulf region rather than just itself. Whilst I can see potential merits in extending the hosting of the tournament across the Arabian Gulf, I personally view the fact that the tournament will be held within such a small State as a positive thing. Fans will be able to go and watch more than one match in a day as travelling between stadiums will be viable as they will all be relatively close. Sure, Qatar has a lot of work to do in terms of transport however it knows that and we all know that it has the money to spend to be able to rectify the problem! This World Cup is 10 and a half years away, let’s not forget.
I urge you again to have a look at the plans in place with regard to the construction of museums and fan parks and many other public amenities with regard to what people will do in their spare time. At the end of the day though, if I was to travel overseas to a World Cup then I'd be most concerned about stadiums to watch games in and bars to drink in and little else! To the majority of people, it will be a big expense and as such, one would expect that those travelling to Qatar would be pretty big football fanatics; therefore the most important thing on their list will be watching football. To be able to see a couple of World Cup games in a day is a great thing.
If I remember right, 9 of the 12 stadiums will be modular and something like 150,000 seats are going to be donated to developing world countries once the tournament has finished.
I think it entirely depends on what type and where hotels will be constructed with regards to if they are going to end up as white elephants or not. There are plenty of hotels in Qatar at the moment, most of which are 5 star and all offer different experiences. Providing hotel construction continues in the current vain then I have no doubt it will be a positive thing. A lot of people travel from Saudi Arabia to stay in Qatar’s hotels and as an ex-patriate, my partner and I often book a night’s stay somewhere and make the most of 2 days using top class facilities for very little. Obviously, Dubai Camel, you know how close and easy to get to your country is so what’s to stop people having a couple of nights in Dubai, or Abu Dhabi, or Bahrain etc while they are in Qatar? Dubai is the furthest away and it’s less than an hours flight at £70. The size of Qatar too means that a travelling fan would be able to stay in the same hotel for the duration of the tournament. Qatar is very central and will allow a huge amount of people the opportunity to get here quite easily (I think something like 2 billion people are within a 4 hour flight away)
I totally understand the scepticism regarding Qatar’s ability to host a World Cup however all I can say is come out here, live here, experience Qatar and maybe people’s views might alter.