Exclusive: Qatar may provide the face-saving, no break in Platini’s ranks

FIFA House

By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
October 3 – Qatar is coming under subtle pressure to formally request switching the 2022 World Cup from the searing heat of the Gulf summer in order to save FIFA having to make the landmark one-off decision. Although the Qataris have long insisted they would never contemplate taking unilateral action and being the ones to ask for a change, InsideWorldFootball has learned that a deal could be struck to ensure the 2022 hosts are not unduly jeopardised by offering themselves to hold the tournament in winter.

FIFA’s executive committee began a two-day meeting today, with a discussion in principle to switch 2022 being the main item on the agenda. Any decision on a firm alternative date will only be taken after full consultation with all those affected has taken place, including clubs, leagues, national associations, broadcasters, players and the four losing candidates.

It is understood that the idea of Qatar, which has no executive committee member, making an official request will be raised during the meeting in Zurich so that FIFA’s executive committee – lambasted by critics for choosing Qatar in the first place three years ago – is spared having to make an even more momentous ruling over the actual timing.

“Qatar won the bid for summer so if there is any change, they should be the ones doing it, not the FIFA exco,” said one high-ranking source close to the exco. “Otherwise let them keep it in summer. They are afraid to make a request but legally FIFA believe that can be covered.

“The problem is not about Qatar per se. The problem is about the process. The majority of the exco are the same people who voted in December, 2010. Are they going to repeat the same mistake by taking a decision based solely on exco opinions? If Qatar make a request and can convince FIFA it’s the right thing to switch, then okay the exco can take the responsibility. But I can’t see how FIFA can ask a country to change something without that country requesting it.”

It has also emerged in the past 48 hours that allegations of labour rights abuses in Qatar have become almost as powerful an issue as switching the World Cup.

“The egos are debating summer or winter but there are more pressing issues like labour rights, which simply have to change,” said the afore-mentioned source. “We can’t have 16 and 17-year olds dying of heart attacks building stadiums. You are talking about the richest country in the world per capita. It’s a huge moral conundrum. They have to deal with these issues seriously within a specific period of time.”

One FIFA exco member, when asked about the idea of Qatar formally requesting a switch from summer, told Insideworldfootball: “That’s quite a clever strategy.”

As FIFA’s top brass began their meeting, reports that FIFA president Sepp Blatter was facing a Michel Platini-led rebellion over his preference to move the 2022 World Cup appeared way off the mark.

Platini was quoted as saying on Wednesday that it would be “impossible” to make any decision this week but what the UEFA boss actually meant, according to his European colleagues, was that it would be impossible to come up with an alternative date so soon. This is a far more plausible interpretation since, from day one, Platini admitted he voted for Qatar – provided the tournament was moved from its traditional summer slot.

“In my opinion sections of the media have read this very wrongly, possibly through misinterpretation because English is not Michel’s first language,” FIFA’s British vice-president, Jim Boyce, told Insideworldfootball.

“What Michel clearly meant was that it is impossible to come up with a firm alternative date unless and until all stakeholders have sat round the table. It was in fact agreed at a meeting of the European FIFA exco members last night that they will absolutely support the call, in principle, for the World Cup to hopefully be switched from June and June but that they want full consultation first before any date is fixed.

“To suggest otherwise is plain wrong. I’m astounded at any talk of a rebellion. Michel’s position, as far as I know, hasn’t changed which is that you can’t play the tournament in June and July.”

Whatever the outcome of the current exco meeting, which has attracted the world’s media to Zurich for a press conference on Friday, there is a growing feeling that there might end up being no agreement on an actual new date for the 2022 World Cup for another two years.

FIFA’s presidential election takes place in 2015, with Blatter and Platini, who won’t make up his mind until next year’s Brazil World Cup at the earliest whether to run for the top job in world football, already jostling for the moral high ground.

Neither is keen to take sole responsibility for moving the 2022 World Cup away from the event’s traditional slot. Because of all the political manoeuvring, nothing concrete might therefore be announced until 2015 – which would still give Qatar seven years to prepare.

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