By The 2022 Fifa World Cup in Qatar will take place in the winter to avoid the heat of the summer in the country, Fifa general secretary Jérôme Valcke announced on Wednesday.
However top Fifa officials immediately denied this. The football magazine 11 Freunde recommends that following such antics the officials of the federation should take a bow and depart:
In summer, temperatures in the desert state regularly rise to 45 degrees Celcius. At the same time humidity levels climb to 85 percent. We Central Europeans only know such climate conditions from the sauna. It would never occur to anyone to hold a football world championship in a sauna – to anyone but the officials at Fifa, that is.
… The federation’s president Sepp Blatter said that ‘sufficient attention’ had not been paid to the ‘weather problem’ in Qatar. Is he joking? Dear Mr Blatter, get ready for some news: the South Pole also has a small ‘weather problem’. Because in fact, it can get really cold down there. Please pay sufficient attention in case the South Pole applies for the 2026 Fifa World Cup.
… Perhaps Fifa officials should ask themselves if it isn’t time to announce another change of plans: and hand in their collective resignation.
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