Changing the dates of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar would play havoc with the league programme in Europe, the Association of European Professional Football Leagues (EPFL) said on Friday. The EPFL, holding its General Assembly in Stockholm, expressed its concern over the damage a rescheduling of the World Cup could cause. EPFL chairman Frederic Thiriez said: "The EPFL considers that any re-scheduling of the World Cup would be damaging the domestic competitions and Leagues' business and sporting interests."
Their insistence that the World Cup should go ahead as planned in the summer of 2022, despite the searing heat with temperatures rising to 50 degrees Celsius, flies in the face of the view of FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who wants the tournament moved to November and December, when the conditions are more conducive to playing football. "We cannot play the World Cup in summer," Blatter told French radio station France Info on Monday.
"The date which is the most convenient is the end of the year." Blatter, who has since January 2011 conceded the finals in Qatar would have to be switched from the traditional June/July dates, agreed the change would not please clubs. "However, the World Cup is too important," he said. The EPFL, which represents 31 professional leagues and associations across Europe, speaks for a total of around 1,000 clubs.
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