In My Opinion...
FIFA’s twenty-second World Cup
is set to be played in Qatar during the winter months of November and December.
Yes that’s right, November and December, pretty much halfway through many major
European football leagues including, the Premier League, Bundesliga and La
Liga; not to mention other European competitions like the Champions League and
Europa League and the standard national competitions like the FA cup and the Coupe
de France.
Why this decision was made is beyond me. It all seems to be a bit of a mess for the average football fan.
The World Cup is the summer festival of football. A time for friends and family to come together to watch their beloved national teams battle it out for the most wanted, most desired trophy known in the footballing community. Exciting and fun as it is, the build-up is always a burden rather than a blessing for fans and players alike. Fans have to wait four years for it, with every qualifying game being a reminder of possibilities still to come, but for the players, they go through huge physical and mental pressures, which are acceptable if they have time to recuperate before their day jobs begin so to place it smack, bang in the middle of the football season is just ridiculous. What were FIFA thinking??
Because of its importance as a
competition, it seems that countries have almost been forced by FIFA to comply as
planned. The competition constructs a 32 team group stage/knockout tournament
squashed into 28 days, halfway through the domestic seasons for clubs around
the world. Each team competing will also have significantly less time to prepare
for the tournament which could hinder the quality of the football on show, plus
with players having to continue with their club season afterwards, the fear of
injury will linger in their minds potentially preventing them from putting
heart and soul into the tournament as well, meaning this perfect footballing
showcase could be tainted.
The fact that Qatar were handed the 2022 Wold Cup at all just screams of corruption, particularly since Seb Blatter was in charge of FIFA when the decision to hold it in such a wealthy, oil-rich country was made. Temperatures in the Middle East can reach upwards of 48 degrees meaning that a World Cup could only ever be played in Qatar during the winter months and since everyone already knows this, why were they given the opportunity to bid in the first place. It begs the question of what FIFA’s governing body were motivated by.
Even though they won the bid, Qatar
came out losers overall because they knew that it would be too hot to play in
the Summer. It seems however that they
weren’t prepared to come up with a viable option as to how it could be done to
the benefit of all, more concerned were they of the enormous revenue that could
be poured into their already rich economy, coercing negative responses about
them as a nation.
Their decision to even bid however
can’t be entirely criticised since they were given the green light to do so by FIFA
who knew very well that it would mess up club football for millions of fans
around the world as it would have to be played in middle of the busiest period
of domestic football season.
I am all for diversity and
change but I am also a pragmatist and it’s clear Qatar just doesn’t fit the
equation for a World Cup host for no other reason than the intensity of their
summer weather and the World Cup is, and always will be, a summer festival of
football. By forcing the rest of the
world to comply with them rather than humbly accept that they can attempt to
qualify and take part in the competition, but not host it further perpetuates
the negativity felt toward the country.
Taking this stance would have been the respectful thing to do since
after all, the World Cup is about bringing Nations together, not making a
political statement and FIFA of all people should have known this.
At the end of the day most of
us will still watch it and cheer on our nation, but will it provide us fans
with the nail biting, heart clenching moments given to us by every other
tournament? We will just have to wait and see…
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