President of FIFA, Joseph Blatter, attendsthe press conference following the meeting of the FIFA executive comittee in Zurich, yesterday.
ZURICH: Fifa has not lost control over the 2022 World Cup, President Sepp Blatter said yesterday in response to ongoing controversy over whether the tournament should be staged in the European summer as planned. Blatter said that any request to change the timing of the event to cooler months would have to come from the organisers themselves. Fifa said in a statement that Blatter had said: “Any request for change must come from Qatar. But they have not made this request yet, because they know that if they do so, the other bidders could say ‘ah, there is a change’.” Qatar beat Australia, South Korea, Japan and the United States in the race to host the 2022 World Cup. Organisers said that matches would be played in air-conditioned stadiums which would be dismantled after the competition and shipped to developing nations. The debate about moving the tournament to the winter months is likely to continue until at least 2016 when a final tournament timetable must be approved by Fifa.
