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Winter World Cup poorly marketed

By on February 23, 2015

Traditionalists aside, FIFA’s inevitably stuck as the World Cup simply cannot possibly be played in the Qatar summer of 2022. Heat levels reach an inhumane average temperature of 106F during its summers, unfit for a football match.

“As you exercise you generate heat and if there’s heat outside, you can’t dissipate that heat and get rid of the heat in your body, which then elevates your temperature and once it reaches above 104 [degrees], the proteins in your body start to break down, they get damaged, and people can die.” — Dr. Thomas Trojian, Director of Injury Prevention and Sports Outreach Programs at the New England Musculoskeletal Institute, speaking to ThinkProgress.org

The only alternative that keeps the tournament in Qatar is to host it during the winter. Yet as much as fun as a possible Boxing Day World Cup final sounds, a winter tournament is not without many repercussions, and would affect the calendar of domestic leagues around the world (except, perhaps, MLS) for at least a season and possibly two. The idea was met with venomous backlash, so FIFA ran into a problem: marketing it.

Rewind to last September, however, and FIFA hadn’t even confirmed that the tournament would be played in the winter. A task force met in Switzerland and outlined three possible dates for the tournament: November-December, 2022, January-February, 2022, or June-July, 2022. Almost immediately, FIFA should’ve crossed off a January-February tournament given their deal with the International Olympic Committee not to overlap with the 2022 Winter Olympics, and a summer tournament due to the aforementioned heat issues; but they didn’t, and spectacular ideas about giant, robotic, and temperature cooling clouds and air-conditioned stadiums began to surface.

Giant robotic clouds? Heck, Qatar have barely begun construction on building an entirely new city, Lusail — scheduled the host of the final — even when overworking migrant workers in “slave-esque” conditions. FIFA should never have even begun to tease the public on that a summer tournament was possible. Even now, even though a new task-force has confirmed it must be played in November-December, nothing is confirmed by the governing body.

FIFA should have made it clear from the moment Qatar won the hosting rights that the tournament would always be held in the winter prevent the confusion, debate, and anger the potential caused. If FIFA must, they should’ve at least ended the conversation as soon as possible.

Photo credit: D@LY3D on Flickr

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.