FIFA World Cup in Qatar During Winter Confirmed?

The 2022 FIFA World Cup will be held in Qatar in the winter, multiple reports have claimed.

According to the Sports Illustrated, the World Cup will be held in November and December of 2022 to "alleviate concerns about the extreme temperatures in the summer." Executives from FIFA are set to meet in Doha, Qatar next week to discuss the plan, with a decision set to be made final at "its meeting in Zurich next month," Sports Illustrated added.

If the schedule pushes through, the timetable is bound to conflict with the majority of the professional soccer leagues in Europe and Latin America, as well as the MLS playoffs in the United States, Fox News Latino reported. The 2022 winter World Cup will also go against the group stage of Champions League play.

The World Cup is usually held during the summer, a time when majority of the soccer leagues are between seasons, Fox News Latino explained. However, Qatar's temperature during the season commonly rises up to 100 degrees and this could be a threat to the players' safety, it added.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter has previously admitted that a summer game in Qatar is impossible due to the country's high levels of temperature during the World Cup's traditional June and July calendar schedule, ESPN reported.

A study published in August 2014 warns that Qatar's summer heat will significantly affect both the spectators and the athletes.

According to the research published by Dr. Andreas Matzarakis and researcher Dominik Frohlich of the Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg in Germany, "[The World Cup] may be not appropriate for visitors, if it is placed during months with extreme conditions. For Doha, [Qatar], this is the period from May to September, when conditions during a large majority of hours of the day cause strong heat stress for the visitors."

The European Club Association and the Association of European Professional Football Leagues previously "submitted presentations to FIFA suggesting April and May 2022 or May and June 2022 as alternative dates for the World Cup, respectively," ESPN noted.

With these suggestions seemingly ignored, questions as to how the other major tournaments would play out are plaguing fans. The news outlet pointed out that the 2022 World Cup schedule could affect the 2021 Confederations Cup, "a pre-World Cup competition that will also take place in Qatar."

Fox News Latino clarified that the Confederations Cup, which may also be held in winter, "includes the winner of the previous World Cup, the host country and the champions of the six continental federations such as UEFA and CONCACAF."