According to The Guardian, the worlds’ player union is all set to urge its members not to take part in the 2022 World Cup if it is played in Qatar’s scorching summer.
“We will not play in the summer in Qatar,” Fifpro’s vice-president Philippe Piat said. “Playing in Qatar when it’s 45-50C is not serious, even if they install air conditioning in the stadia.
“It’s not serious and not only for the 22 players. There are other people involved. We have informed Uefa and Fifa that we would not play in the summer. We prefer to make our threat now so they won’t be able to say they had not been warned.”
Though Theo Van Seggelen, the general secretary of the union feels a boycott is not necessary. “There is no reason to organise a boycott,” he said. “Fifa is looking at the situation and we are working with them to ensure the players’ wishes are respected and that our members receive maximum protection.”
After concerns being raised regarding the world cup to be played in Qatar heat, Fifa has set up a consultation process to look and decide upon the timings of the tournament.
FIFpro has plans of boycotting the world cup if played in Qatar summer. “We could play it in the winter, that would be all right,” Piat, the FIFpro presidential nominee said.
Fifa president Sepp Blatter is also considering a winter movd for the world cup after he admitted that he had not taken the heat problem sufficiently into consideration when the tournament was awarded to Qatar in December 2010 on the expense of bids from Australia, USA, Japan and Korea. “The World Cup must be a festival of the people. But for it to be such a festival, you can’t play football in the summer,” he said in July.
Pait also criticised the January transfer window and its organisation.
“I’m a bit radical so I would say that we should not have a winter transfer window because we want stability for the players’ contracts,” he added.
“There could be some adjustments, for instance when a player does not play it may be better for him to find another club, or when a club has a player out with injury. So I would limit it to one or two players. We could maintain the January transfer window but with limitations.”