FIFA announce that the 2022 World Cup will not be held in the summer

Steve Lambert,

Editor (Sport)

FIFA have announced today that the 2022 World Cup, which is to be held in the Middle Eastern country Qatar, will not be held in the summer.

The decision, which had seemingly coming for a long time, is based around the fact that the summer weather in Qatar will be nigh on unbearable for fans and players alike – often reaching well over 40 degrees celcius.

FIFA Secretary Jerome Valcke stated that ”The dates for the World Cup (in Qatar) will not be June-July. To be honest, I think it will be held between November 15 and January 15 at the latest.”

“If you play between November 15 and the end of December that’s the time when the weather conditions are best, when you can play in temperatures equivalent to a warm spring season in Europe, averaging 25 degrees. That would be perfect for playing football.”

In reality this decision was a mere formality, after President Sepp Blatter had said that the World Cup was going to stay in Qatar last year. Regardless, many users on twitter were upset with the decision:

I know, let's force players to spend Christmas away from their families. Well done FIFA, 2022 World Cup is a farce

— Jack Prentice #678 ()

Why did Qatar even get the 2022 World Cup? I just can't understand why they thought it was a good idea! A winter World Cup will be so weird

— James Procter

So if the 2022 World Cup is between November and January how are the leagues going to operate? FIFA has created a HUGE headache!!

— Sean Cardovillis

UPDATE

11:48am

It seems like Valcke may have slightly jumped the gun…

https://?q=%23SSN&src=hash

11:51am

It appears as if a decision isn’t going to be made until the end of 2014 at the earliest, according to Boyce. This isn’t going to help FIFA’s reputation one bit.