Fifa offers winter dates for Qatar World Cup in 2022

Sepp Blatter to seek fifth term as Fifa president saying ‘mission is not finished’.

Fifa president Sepp Blatter has seen through a fourth term amid lot of controversies but has indicated he will contest again. Fabrice Coffrini / AFP

Fifa has offered January and November in 2022 as alternative kick-off dates for the World Cup in Qatar.

Fifa said it presented the two options yesterday when its consultation group first met to seek ways to avoid playing in the desert heat of June-July.

Fifa’s executive committee should confirm the 2022 World Cup dates at its meeting in March in Zurich.

The January-February tournament option is unlikely if the 2022 Winter Olympics are scheduled in their traditional February slot.

IOC president Thomas Bach has already said Fifa president Sepp Blatter assured him the two events would not clash.

Blatter has repeatedly said the World Cup cannot be played in the Qatari summer, even though the organising committee has stood by its pledge to build air-cooled stadiums and play in ­summer.

Fifa’s consultation group – including clubs, leagues, players’ unions and Qatari organising head Hassan Al Thawadi – will meet again in November with a further meeting in February.

Delegates were asked to “provide detailed information on how the different proposed dates ... will affect their relevant competitions, activities and/or stakeholders”, Fifa said in a statement.

Europe’s top leagues face closing down for up to two months in midseason. The Champions League also plays half its group matches in November and ­December.

Playing in Qatar’s winter is likely to affect the clubs’ schedules for a year before and after the World Cup season, which needs to start earlier and finish later than normal.

To plan for a three-season disruption, the Fifa consultation panel is drafting the international match calendar from 2018 through 2024 – a six-year cycle instead of the usual four.

The Fifa international calendar sets dates for official national team matches and tournaments. Clubs are required to release their players for these national team duties.

Meanwhile, the prospect of Blatter continuing as Fifa president into his 80s came a step nearer yesterday when he confirmed he was standing for a fifth term of office next year.

Blatter, who will be 79 when the votes are cast in June and who was first elected 16 years ago, confirmed his candidature for another term in a recorded interview transmitted to delegates at the Soccerex Global Convention in Manchester, England.

“You see a mission is never finished and my mission is not finished,” he said in the 42-minute interview, adding that he would officially tell Fifa’s executive committee of his candidature in Zurich at the end of this month.

Before the World Cup started in Brazil in June, five of Fifa’s six confederations – the exception being Uefa – gave Blatter their support to continue as president and it is almost inconceivable that he will not be re-elected in the vote at the Fifa Congress in Zurich in June.

Last month Michel Platini ended speculation about his bid for the presidency when he said he would not stand. Instead he will seek another term as the president of European football’s ruling body, Uefa.

The only other declared candidate is the former Fifa deputy secretary general, Frenchman Jerome Champagne, although his campaign is independent of Uefa’s backing and might well be cancelled now Blatter has declared his interest.

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