Shifting 2022 World Cup from heat of summer has a hint of the inevitable

Some say it will cause utter chaos. Others say it is necessary. And while on paper it is a possible shift of a few months in scheduling an event that will not take place for nine more years, the idea of moving the 2022 World Cup has already enmeshed the global soccer world in a polarizing debate.

The issue is whether to stage the tournament in Qatar during the searing heat of the Middle Eastern summer, when it is now scheduled to be played, or to shift it to winter in the Northern Hemisphere. Sepp Blatter, the president of FIFA, the sport's international governing body, has signaled that he supports moving the event to the relative cool of November. That change may appeal to common sense, but it also raises a host of complications, including logistics, money and tradition, that are the topic of intense discussion among leagues and fans around the world.

The debate is the latest twist in a what has been a controversy from the moment FIFA awarded the World Cup to Qatar in 2010. Over the past few weeks, Blatter and other top officials have increased their public lobbying for an unprecedented switch away from the World Cup's traditional summer schedule, when most of the world's top leagues and players are in their off-season. Blatter plans to ask FIFA's executive committee for a formal vote on the winter move during a meeting in early October.

Perhaps sensing the shifting pendulum, a top official with the European Clubs' Association, which is a group of top teams in Europe, said Tuesday that the change was "almost inevitable."

The expedited time frame of a vote, though, is alarming to many soccer officials, including Christian Seifert, the chief executive of Germany's Bundesliga. In an email, Seifert indicated that Blatter may be pushing for an answer without full consideration of all the new questions that would be raised.

"The World Cup isn't for another nine years," Seifert said. "Any decision would have to be made without haste and in careful consideration of all the possible ramifications."

Seifert added: "Our greatest concern is that we have yet to see a thorough and inclusive discussion of arguments for and against a move. That's the step that needs to come first."

At this point, it does not appear Blatter intends to wait. Speaking in Argentina on Tuesday, he reaffirmed his position that the 2022 World Cup should - and will - remain in Qatar while also stating, yet again, that it is untenable for the tournament to be played during the summer.

"It was time to go to the Arabic world," Blatter said, according to Reuters, adding that soccer "is a sport that is played not only in Europe but all around the world."

Qatar's hosting has long been one of international soccer's most scrutinized issues. Despite being the only nation bidding that had never hosted a previous World Cup or Olympics, Qatar beat out other competitors, including the United States, with a bid including $50 billion in spending. Qatari officials promised to construct air-conditioned stadiums and public areas where visitors could avoid summertime temperatures that can reach 120 degrees.

Qatar's victory was stunning, and its detractors have noted that there have been numerous assertions of bribery surrounding the vote, and they also say that several members of FIFA's executive committee at the time have since lost their posts amid charges of corruption. On a less sinister level, critics have also pointed out that FIFA classified Qatar as the only "high-risk" potential host in its prevote assessment, with its concerns covering a broad spectrum from the region's climate to Qatar's plan to have as many as 12 stadiums in a 20-mile radius.

The weather, of course, continues to be the biggest concern. Blatter contributed to a feeling by some in the soccer world that a classic bait and switch had taken place when he began discussing a winter tournament in Qatar only months after the country's bid - a bid which was ostensibly for a summer event - was awarded.

Since then, FIFA officials have referred obliquely to medical analyses that support the opinion that playing a monthlong tournament in the desert - even with copious cooling zones - is a risky idea. The conditions in the Middle East in November and December, on the other hand, are virtually ideal.

Still, although casual observers see a shift to winter as relatively insignificant, the ramifications of playing a World Cup outside the standard window are considerable.

What happens to the various domestic leagues, especially the most high-profile ones in Europe, during the tournament? Would their seasons be moved forward or backward - or both - to make up for the lost time? What about player contracts that traditionally expire near July? And what happens to other important club tournaments like the Champions League, which will have to shift their schedules in multiple years to accommodate what could be a winter break of at least six weeks in 2022?

And what about TV? Fox and Telemundo agreed in 2011 to pay $1 billion for U.S. broadcast rights for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments.

"FIFA has informed us that they are considering and voting on moving the 2022 World Cup," a spokesman for Fox Sports said. "Fox Sports bought the World Cup rights with the understanding they would be in the summer as they have been since the 1930s."

Andrei Markovits, a professor of political science at the University of Michigan who has written widely about soccer, said in an interview: "It is a few months, but it is a massive few months. The Europeans have played a fall-to-spring season for basically 100 years. It is what they do. To interrupt it is contrary to everything in history."

He added: "Look at Major League Baseball: why does it not play in the Olympics? Because it will not interrupt its season. It won't do it."

Executives from several leagues, including England's globally popular Premier League, have made a similar case. Richard Scudamore, the league's chief executive, has said repeatedly that he will lobby hard to maintain the current soccer calendar. Others have suggested that FIFA has a legal obligation to play the tournament when it was originally scheduled.

Blatter, unsurprisingly, seems unmoved by those claims. In an interview with the website Inside World Football, he referred to FIFA as "the owner of the FIFA World Cup" and said, "It is FIFA who can and has the legal right to determine where it wants the World Cup to be played."

© 2013 New York Times News Service