Moving the World Cup

[Kinky Gerbil]

Sepp Blatter in favour of winter World Cup | Football

Seems to me that Twatter has signed his own death warrent by giving it to Qatar. If it is moved top class teams (and England) wont take part in my view, making it less profitable.

 

[Fungus]

"[It is important] to play when the climate is appropriate and I'm thinking about the footballers, not only the fans but the actors."

So why didn't they think of that BEFORE awarding it to Qatar?

"It means you open the World Cup to countries where they can never play it in June and July because it's never the right period of time."

So, he also wants it to be a regular change. What countries would this include, that are otherwise excluded? Southern hemisphere countries like, er, South Africa? Australia, maybe?

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

It looks like this was always going to happen and it has a lot to do with FIFA controlling domestic leagues. They can naff-off. They can stick to the bloomin' summer.

 

[Bwian]

The game is in safe hands.

 

[Tricky Dicky]

It could screw up two seasons. Say they had it in Feb, that's one month out of the season. The squads tend to have 3-5 weeks together beforehand to acclimatise and train together, plus those taking part will need at least 3 weeks after, so that's potentially around 3 months out of the middle of a season, and that's without figuring in any winter breaks. Can't see the major league money men wearnig that.

 

[e77]

Love it or hate it, if the Premier League withdraw their players there won't be a World Cup.

 

[Danny-Boy]

I think Blatter has stirred it up more with his apparent pronouncement that gay fans should not have active homosexual sex whilst they are in Qatar in 2022. Does seem rather a long-term wish. I wonder what he'll be doing himself in 2022, pushing up the daisies?

A propos of that I dio wonder whether the England bid for 2018 was wise to trail around the Blessed Elton as part of our package. A lot of the more "traditional" football supporters on the committee might have wondered whether they were being offered services of an anal nature....

 

[Gwylan]

Love it or hate it, if the Premier League withdraw their players there won't be a World Cup.

I don't think they can. They have to release players for tournaments - I think there are even rules about allowing some time at training sessions beforehand. Any club that refused to comply would face sanctions - these would certainly include non-participation in the Champions League and as that's the biggest money-spinner of all, I can't see the clubs wanting to go down that route.

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

Can F.I.F.A do that? Surely the Champions League comes under the auspices of U.E.F.A?

 

[Simster]

I think it's hilarious. So now we've got human rights issues, weather issues, and this is after FIFA have said some matches might be played in neighbouring countries.

I hope the whole tournament in Qatar is cancelled, that FIFA scrabble around desperately looking for a suitable June/July host and that the USA and Australia both tell them to f*** off.

 

[Acker79]

If the premier league withdraw, it could have a knock on effect that could be quite bad.

Would the big four be allowed to take part in champions league, which is where they get a lot of their money from? I know it's only four teams, but those teams are gonna have more power, not really in voting terms, but in negotiations and so on, they are the big draw. Would sky pay as much for the tv rights if man utd, arsenal, chelsea and liverpool/tottenham refuse to join in negotiations, and make their own deals?

If The EPL threat to pull out, FIFA threaten to ban them from the champions league, so the big four say they'll let their players go. The rest of the premier league threatens to boycott the league if the big four don't refuse to release their players, so the big four threaten to withdraw from tv rights negotiations.

If everyone follows through, the big four get a massive financial boost from there tv deals, coupled with the money from the champions league.
Meanwhile the rest of the teams get less TV money than normal, don't get it supplemented by any big money competitions.

The net result being a even more unbalanced premier league than we currently have.

For that reason, I don't see a premier league action against the world cup.

The clubs would also have to deal with their players actually wanting to play for their country.

 

[Commander]

I think this is great. If we play it in January our poor little multi-millionares cant complain of being too tired.

 

[Acker79]

Can F.I.F.A do that? Surely the Champions League comes under the auspices of U.E.F.A?

Perhaps. But are UEFA as upset about things as the English media and some fans? UEFA have to represent all European clubs (and nations' football associations and so on?). They aren't all as upset by the Qatar decision as the English are (and I suspect we would be less upset by the Qatar issues if we had been awarded 2018), so we would need the majority of top european leagues to refuse to take part and I don't think they'd all be so willing. As such, UEFA would be willing to acquiesce to FIFA's "suggested" actions.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

If the premier league withdraw, it could have a knock on effect that could be quite bad.

Would the big four be allowed to take part in champions league, which is where they get a lot of their money from? I know it's only four teams, but those teams are gonna have more power, not really in voting terms, but in negotiations and so on, they are the big draw. Would sky pay as much for the tv rights if man utd, arsenal, chelsea and liverpool/tottenham refuse to join in negotiations, and make their own deals?

If The EPL threat to pull out, FIFA threaten to ban them from the champions league, so the big four say they'll let their players go. The rest of the premier league threatens to boycott the league if the big four don't refuse to release their players, so the big four threaten to withdraw from tv rights negotiations.

If everyone follows through, the big four get a massive financial boost from there tv deals, coupled with the money from the champions league.
Meanwhile the rest of the teams get less TV money than normal, don't get it supplemented by any big money competitions.

The net result being a even more unbalanced premier league than we currently have.

For that reason, I don't see a premier league action against the world cup.

The clubs would also have to deal with their players actually wanting to play for their country.

I dont disagree but I also doubt it would Just be the EPL.

 

[Acker79]

I dont disagree but I also doubt it would Just be the EPL.

Are there any hints that other nations (with the biggest ones being Spain, Germany (currently teams that are, unlike us, very optimistic about their standing in the world, and their ability to threaten for the world cup), and Italy (always confident) would join a boycott? Would we be thinking about boycotting the world cup if we had won the last one, if we felt we would win the next and/or generally were positive and optimistic about our national side?

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Are there any hints that other nations (with the biggest ones being Spain, Germany (currently teams that are, unlike us, very optimistic about their standing in the world, and their ability to threaten for the world cup), and Italy (always confident) would join a boycott? Would we be thinking about boycotting the world cup if we had won the last one, if we felt we would win the next and/or generally were positive and optimistic about our national side?

When there national league is threatened I would say there is a massive chance of it happening. I think the Spanish would put club before country.

 

[Biscuit]

Well we having a top notch second tier in the Championship. Let's give those boys a run out!

 

[Gwylan]

Can F.I.F.A do that? Surely the Champions League comes under the auspices of U.E.F.A?

I'm pretty sure that there's a tie-in between the two. I know that Platini is an ex officio member of the FIFA executive.

The other consequence of playing in the middle of winter is that clubs could start looking to buy players who aren't involved in the WC. If, say, Bosnia or Sweden aren't it, expect the price of their players to rocket upwards.

 

[Pavilionaire]

I hope the whole tournament in Qatar is cancelled, that FIFA scrabble around desperately looking for a suitable June/July host and that the USA and Australia both tell them to f*** off.

I put on an earlier thread that one consequence of humiliating England in the hosting vote was that FIFA risked losing one of the few countries that could host a world cup at the drop of a hat. The man's an idiot.

 

[Ernest]

Surely it would put FIFA at a collision course with UEFA as the Champions League would be knackered as well as the domestic leagues ?