One of the biggest concerns raised when Qatar was bidding for the World Cup was how can you expect players to play in 120 degree Fahrenheit temperature, which isn’t rare in the summer. The answer to that question was air conditioned stadiums which the Qatar bud committee insisted would keep the stadiums at a comfortable temperature, something FIFA also insisted was true. Well, only a month after granting Qatar the 2022 World Cup, FIFA has almost completely reversed field, going fro considering moving the tournament to the winter to now all but saying it will be played in the winter.
Winter World Cup, Who Will Be Able To Go?
All of the obvious questions have already been raised. Did the Executive Committee members who awarded Qatar the World Cup know they were voting for a winter World Cup? Why wasn’t this a part of the bid before the vote with the transparency FIFA insists upon, albeit only in rhetoric? How will this affect the leagues around the world? One question that must also be raised though is who can get time off of work to go to Qatar in January as opposed to in June or July?
It is presumed that a winter World Cup would take place in January, which means that for people to attend, they will have to get time off of work just a week or even days after holiday time off of work for Christmas and New Years. For many people, getting time off of work in January or even February is not possible. At many jobs, vacation time resets at the end of the year, meaning that on January 1st they have zero vacation time accrued. It is not a surprise that if you look at tourism to and from the United States, January and February rank as the worst months for travel.
One of the reasons FIFA said that they awarded Qatar the World Cup is to spread the game around the world, which is an admirable goal and one that has some merit after awarding South Africa, Brazil and now Russia and Qatar the right to host. Part of the World Cup is also about bringing people together from around the world to a single nation where they can intermingle, learn about new cultures and celebrate together. As a 2010 World Cup attendee, I can say that spending time in bars, on the streets, at restaurants and wherever in between with people from around the world and getting to make friends from different corners of the earth is one of the greatest things about the tournament.
For that to happen, people from all around the world have to be able to travel to the tournament. Getting vacation time in June and July takes planning and forethought, but for many, it can be done. On the other hand, in January, many won’t be able to even get the time off of work to consider making the trip, possibly robbing the 2022 World Cup of the multinational and multicultural intermingling that makes it so incredible.
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