Special Report: Qatar 2022

[Lebohang]

Não encontrei nenhum tópico que se enquadre nisto portanto decidi criar este. Trata-se de uma reportagem de três partes escrita pelo Philippe Auclair sobre o Mundial de 2022 no Qatar.

 

Para quem não sabe quem é:

 

Philippe Auclair, biographer of Eric Cantona (The Rebel Who Would Be King, winner of the Football Book Of The Year Award in 2010) and Thierry Henry, England and international affairs correspondent for France Football magazine and RMC radio station, contributor to The Blizzard.

 

Esteve também envolvido, segundo aquilo que vi, na reportagem “Le Qatargate” da France Football, sendo um dos autores do artigo. Basicamente irá centrar-se sobre todos os problemas que ocorreram (e irão ocorrer) devido à atribuição da organização do Mundial de Futebol de 2022 ao Qatar.

 

O texto que vem a seguir é a primeira parte, a segunda e terceira sairão amanhã e depois de amanhã, respetivamente.

 

 

France Football's Philippe Auclair is bringing us a three-part special report into Qatar's controversial hosting of the 2022 World Cup. In part one, he looks at how FIFA found itself in such a mess, and how Sepp Blatter has potentially opened up a huge rupture in the global game. Parts two and three will be published on Thursday and Friday.

 

Two years and nine months after FIFA’s Executive Committee awarded the 2022 World Cup to Qatar in perplexing circumstances, the uncertainty lingers: no one knows for sure what lies on that horizon, which could yet prove to be a mirage.

 

Sepp Blatter, who masters double negatives with something of PG Wodehouse’s virtuosity for similes and metaphors, did nothing to dispel the clouds that are gathering over the fate of that tournament when he spoke on the subject little over a week ago.

 

"I would be very much surprised, more than surprised, if the ExCo will not accept the principle that you cannot play in summer in Qatar," the 77 year-old said. That at least was unambiguous. But what you would have expected to hear next - "therefore, we will play in winter" - was not forthcoming.

 

Cue much scratching of heads. What could Blatter possibly mean? That the competition could still be moved to another country? But that, only Blatter knows. What a mess. What a predictable mess.

 

It’s not as if the FIFA panjandrums, shorn of two of their number (Amos Adamu and Reynald Temarii, who’d been suspended for violations of the organisation’s code of ethics), hadn’t known what was in store. The technical report which had been submitted to them prior to the vote had warned that Qatar was a 'high risk' bid, precisely because of the dangers posed to the health of players, fans and officials by the searing heat of the summer in the Gulf.

 

The not-so-wise men ignored these findings, and here we are now, heading for a crisis that might change the face of football forever.

 

This is not an exaggeration. What is at stake here is not just whether a minuscule gas-rich country with close to zero football tradition will be allowed to host the World Cup, but whether, to honour the pledge made by FIFA to the emirate, it is worth tearing up the football calendar and precipitating an open conflict between leagues, national associations, confederations and FIFA, all of which have their own opinion on the topic – and colossal interests at stake.

 

One way or another, that head-on crash is unavoidable. It had been from the outset.

 

Remember the weeks leading to December 2, 2010. Not a day passed by without allegations of murky dealings and corruption. By taking the soft-headed decision to hold the ballot to award both the 2018 and 2022 World Cups on the same day, FIFA had made sure that countries bidding for one or the other tournament would collude to rake in as many votes as they could. I’ll support you for 2018, you support me for 2022, and vice-versa.

 

As early as February 2010, it was whispered that Qatar had reached some kind of arrangement with the Spanish-Portuguese bid. The influence of the Iberians in Latin America could help bring in as much as four extra votes to Qatar – those of Argentinian Julio Grondona, Guatemalan Rafael Salguero, Brazilian Ricardo Teixeira and Paraguayan Nicolas Leoz – on top of the support of Spaniard Angel Maria Villar Llona.

 

Whilst a FIFA investigation cleared both bids of the accusation of collusion, Sepp Blatter later commented: "I'll be honest, there was a bundle of votes between Spain and Qatar. But it was a nonsense. It was there but it didn't work, not for one and not for the other side."

 

It certainly didn’t work for Spain, who lost out to Russia in the second round of voting; but regardless of the particulars, the tone had been set. Suspicion and rancour would always surround FIFA’s choice.

 

 

Looking back on these events, German Theo Zwanziger, who was elected to FIFA's Executive Committee in 2011, recently called the decision to award the 2022 tournament to Qatar "a blatant mistake". It may have been in the grander scheme of things; but in the minds of those who made it, a number of whom have left FIFA since, not always gracefully, it was the logical conclusion of a political process that did nothing to enhance their organisation’s reputation.

 

If Qatar was guilty of wrongdoing – which has never been satisfactorily substantiated - the real culprit was FIFA, which had allowed for this nefarious process to take place in the first instance.

 

Still, things could have settled down, despite occasional revelations which cast doubt on the validity of the vote without, again, producing the required smoking gun. It could’ve been possible to make the most out of a bad thing; but it all changed when Blatter – widely believed to have voted for the USA, not Qatar, in 2010 – made an astonishing U-turn in August of this year.

 

Having previously maintained that the World Cup was to be played in June and July, as stated in the tender documents which all bidding countries had to abide by, the FIFA president announced that he’d come to share the view of Michel Platini (a staunch supporter of Qatar and of the winter switch from the word go) and Franz Beckenbauer that the 2022 World Cup could only be staged during what is the coolest season in the emirate.

 

It had taken him over two years to find his road to Damascus. Why? His argument – that new medical evidence had been made available to FIFA – didn’t withstand scrutiny; there was nothing new in those reports that no one has seen outside of Zurich. And what of the Qataris’ claim that revolutionary 'green' air-cooling technologies would be developed in time to create some kind of artificial spring in the summer of 2022, a claim which had been bought at face value by the Executive Committee in 2010? What of Blatter’s previous insistence that the date of the World Cup’s opening game could only be changed if the Qataris themselves requested it cap in hand?

 

These questions had suddenly become irrelevant, for no other reason than Blatter had batted them out of the park.

 

What he's succeeded in doing, however, is to create a storm that will not abate soon. As you’ll see in the next of these columns, the winter switch might solve one problem, but only at the expense of creating a myriad others. That silver bullet has been directed straight at FIFA’s own feet.

 

There are legal problems: how will the losers of 2010 – Australia, USA, Korea and Japan – react if and when it is decided that the tender they spent millions to respect was not worth the paper it was printed on? By suing FIFA?

 

There are logistical problems too: should the 2022 World Cup be played in November and December, football seasons as we know them would have to be re-defined everywhere at every level, and perhaps forever, though nobody has the faintest idea of how this can be achieved. That is provided all parties would agree, which is certainly in doubt at the moment: the Premier League is by no means isolated in its outspoken opposition to a winter World Cup.

 

Blatter knew all this before he spoke. He was aware of the aftershock that would ensue. If he, the politician of the age, precipitated the current crisis, it is because he wanted the crisis to happen, for a purpose that will only become clear in time.

 

It is true that there was no alternative. It is true that holding a tournament of that magnitude during the Qatari summer is impossible. It is also true that this probably is the only thing on which all are in agreement today.

 

Editado 6 Setembro 2013 por Lebohang

[Kane]

só espero que nao façam o mundial em dezembro

se o qatar nao tem condições para organizar um mundial em junho e julho escolham outro sitio

[45roma]

Toca a parar os campeonatos durante um mês para organizar um torneio de seleções. :lol:

[Bolungarvík]

só espero que nao façam o mundial em dezembro

se o qatar nao tem condições para organizar um mundial em junho e julho escolham outro sitio

 

Isto, juntando o facto de ser quase certo que não vai ter as condições. Que seja nos USA ou Austrália, para que o futebol nesses países cresça em popularidade.

[Eulogio Soriano]

Uma coisa também engraçada era tentarem fazer num país que respeitasse os direitos humanos.

[Zane]

Cá para mim as ligas em vez de acabarem em maio passam acabar em junho!! Pára tudo para ver os PetroDolares :facepalm:

 

Agora vejam, disputa-se em dezembro, logo será a meio da época. Será que os clubes irão aceitar isso?

Editado 4 Setembro 2013 por Zane

[Eulogio Soriano]

Cá para mim as ligas em vez de acabarem em maio passam acabar em junho!! Pára tudo para ver os PetroDolares :facepalm:

 

Agora vejam, disputa-se em dezembro, logo será a meio da época. Será que os clubes irão aceitar isso?

 

O Benfica aceita logo.

 

--------------------------------------------

 

A selecção do Qatar é algo a ter em conta? Não me parece que seja, de longe, comparável com a África do Sul. Comparando com países que se qualificaram automaticamente... Não estou a ver assim nenhum caso que tenha tido um anfitrião tão 'fraco'...

[Mr.Shelby]

Não é o campeonato alemão que pára de meio Dezembro até meio janeiro? E eles não perdem qualidade com isso, pelo contrário. Não vejo drama nenhum, honestamente.

[Lebohang]

O Benfica aceita logo.

 

--------------------------------------------

 

A selecção do Qatar é algo a ter em conta? Não me parece que seja, de longe, comparável com a África do Sul. Comparando com países que se qualificaram automaticamente... Não estou a ver assim nenhum caso que tenha tido um anfitrião tão 'fraco'...

 

O Qatar tem um avançado bom chamado Soria, um uruguaio que atuou praticamente ao longo da sua carreira lá e naturalizou-se. Têm também mais uns naturalizados, na sua maioria brasileiros. Lembro-me também de um médio ofensivo muito rápido que tinham na Taça Asiática de 2011, mas escapa-me o nome.

 

Fizeram uma boa competição nesse ano (TA 2011) mas a verdade é que também tinham um bom upgrade no banco: Bruno Metsu, o homem que agarrou num Senegal completamente desfeito e desorganizado em 2000 e levou a equipa à final da CAN e aos quartos-de-final do Campeonato do Mundo. De resto vi um pouco do jogo deles contra o Irão este ano e não houve ninguém que se destacasse muito, apesar de terem mandado uma bola à trave. É uma equipa mediana e que ainda precisa de evoluir muito, se bem que têm 9 anos para fazer isso. :mrgreen:

[4tires]

O boxind day não é dia 24 de Dezembro? xD

[Unclouded]

O boxing day não é dia 24 de Dezembro? xD

 

Fixed. E é a 26. :compinchas:

[HIM]

O Qatar tem um avançado bom chamado Soria, um uruguaio que atuou praticamente ao longo da sua carreira lá e naturalizou-se. Têm também mais uns naturalizados, na sua maioria brasileiros. Lembro-me também de um médio ofensivo muito rápido que tinham na Taça Asiática de 2011, mas escapa-me o nome.

 

Fizeram uma boa competição nesse ano (TA 2011) mas a verdade é que também tinham um bom upgrade no banco: Bruno Metsu, o homem que agarrou num Senegal completamente desfeito e desorganizado em 2000 e levou a equipa à final da CAN e aos quartos-de-final do Campeonato do Mundo. De resto vi um pouco do jogo deles contra o Irão este ano e não houve ninguém que se destacasse muito, apesar de terem mandado uma bola à trave. É uma equipa mediana e que ainda precisa de evoluir muito, se bem que têm 9 anos para fazer isso. :mrgreen:

 

Fábio César Montezine ?

 

Lembro-me que ele no fm 2010 ou 2011 era compra obrigatória para clubes de meia tabela.... jogava que se fartava nesse jogo ;)

[OntheRadio]

Toca a parar os campeonatos durante um mês para organizar um torneio de seleções. :lol:

É preferível isso do que os jogadores andarem a arrastar-se em campo com temperaturas superiores a 40 graus.

Era acordar-se com as várias federações, terminar os campeonatos a 15 de Dezembro p.e. e recomeçarem 2 meses depois, 15 de Fevereiro.

Assim dava o mês de Janeiro para se realizar o campeonato. Mas ai acresce o problema das festividades religiosas do Natal para os católicos.

É um problema que a FIFA vai ter de arranjar, caso contrário vai ter um campeonato sem grande qualidade competitiva

[Lebohang]

Fábio César Montezine ?

 

Lembro-me que ele no fm 2010 ou 2011 era compra obrigatória para clubes de meia tabela.... jogava que se fartava nesse jogo ;)

 

Não, o jogador de quem eu estava a falar era mesmo um natural do Qatar, não um naturalizado.

 

Mas esses dois brasileiros (Emerson e Fábio César) e o uruguaio (Soria) foram excelentes para melhorar a equipa do Qatar.

[45roma]

É preferível isso do que os jogadores andarem a arrastar-se em campo com temperaturas superiores a 40 graus.

Era acordar-se com as várias federações, terminar os campeonatos a 15 de Dezembro p.e. e recomeçarem 2 meses depois, 15 de Fevereiro.

Assim dava o mês de Janeiro para se realizar o campeonato. Mas ai acresce o problema das festividades religiosas do Natal para os católicos.

É um problema que a FIFA vai ter de arranjar, caso contrário vai ter um campeonato sem grande qualidade competitiva

E jogar em campos cobertos? Será que ajudava a situação?

[Sumudica by Night]

Se não estou em erro, os estádios do Qatar seriam todos cobertos e com temperaturas decentes lá dentro.

O problema é tudo o resto.

[HIM]

Não, o jogador de quem eu estava a falar era mesmo um natural do Qatar, não um naturalizado.

 

Mas esses dois brasileiros (Emerson e Fábio César) e o uruguaio (Soria) foram excelentes para melhorar a equipa do Qatar.

 

Pensava que ainda estavas a falar de naturalizados ;)

[45roma]

Se não estou em erro, os estádios do Qatar seriam todos cobertos e com temperaturas decentes lá dentro.

O problema é tudo o resto.

É meter o país totalmente coberto. :mrgreen:

[OntheRadio]

E jogar em campos cobertos? Será que ajudava a situação?

Pode ser uma das resoluções.

Mas até lá muita tinta vai correr

[Poeira]

O problema aqui, como o Sumudica disse, é tudo o resto. Pior que isso, é quem decidiu atribuir-lhes o Mundial já saber disto tudo.

[Kimi Raikkonen]

Ja se organizou JO em Pequin numa zona claramente afectada pela emissão de gases que compromete a qualidade do ar e com mais ou menos dificuldades aquilo foi prosseguindo.

 

 

A não ser que hajam problemas a nivel politico e economico, nao sei que tipo de problemas possam comprometer a competiçao.

[Lebohang]

Já agora aproveito para escrever isto.

 

No 1º post tinha escrito que o autor do texto estava envolvido no "Le Qatargate". Creio que toda a gente percebeu aquilo que eu quis dizer (não houve ninguém que reparou) mas aproveito para esclarecer, porque as palavras escolhidas não foram as melhores.

 

Quando eu disse "envolvido" foi na elaboração do artigo. O Philippe Auclair foi um dos autores da investigação que originou o famoso artigo com o mesmo nome na France Football. Não foi de envolvido no sentido de ser cúmplice dessa polémica.

 

Já corrigi isso no 1º post. :wink:

[Pantera]

No Qatar está a ser feito um trabalho intensivo para melhorar a qualidade dos jovens jogadores com fim a estarem pronto para o Mundial, as academias foram construídas com um nível máximo de qualidade existente e contrataram vários técnicos internacionais, e a Aspire (se não me engano acho que é a academia topo do país) tem duas equipas com vários escalões de formação, uma das equipas recrutou os melhores jovens do país para os evoluir, e a outro é a Aspire International que tem vários jovens africanos com o fim de evoluírem e naturalizarem-se para participarem no Mundial.

Isto é apenas em resposta quanto a questão da qualidade do futebol no Qatar, e já agora dois jovens do Qatar já foram transferidos à experiencia (acho) para o Sevilha.

[Lebohang]

Part Two: Football in denial over winter World Cup upheaval

 

 

France Football's Philippe Auclair is bringing us a three-part special report into Qatar's controversial hosting of the 2022 World Cup. In part two, he looks at the huge logistical and structural problems that moving the World Cup will pose, and questions why no serious attempts have been made to explore these issues by those who control the game. Part three will be published on Friday.

 

The World Cup has adopted eight different formats already, and seen the number of teams taking part in it increase from the 13 which had been invited to the inaugural 1930 tournament in Uruguay to the 32 which contested France 1998 and will play in Brazil next year.

 

One thing has remained unchanged throughout, however: the timing of the competition, which has never started earlier than May 27 – Italy 1934 – and finished later than July 30 – Uruguay 1930. As time has gone by, the window set aside for the World Cup has shrunk. From Italy 1990 onwards, all tournaments, which now last precisely one month, have taken place between May 31 and July 17, regardless of the continents on which they were organised. During that period, no less than four continents have hosted the competition: Europe three times and North America, Asia and Africa one time each.

 

The principle of holding the tournament in June and July has become enshrined in FIFA’s regulations as well as in tradition, and for good reason. Given the football calendar in place for domestic and international club competitions in Europe (and elsewhere) as well as the average weather conditions on the planet, the early part of the summer was and remains the most practical and least disruptive option. It may not be perfect, far from it, but it works.

 

This has not prevented the idea of switching the 2022 tournament to winter to gain ground since Michel Platini suggested it immediately after Qatar was chosen to be its host. Other voices, not least those of the 'ambassadors' recruited by the Qataris to promote their bid, have joined his recently, encouraging the UEFA president to become ever more forthright in the way in which he’s presented his argument - for which he shouldn’t be condemned out of hand.

 

He at least hasn’t wavered in his convictions. The problem is that he has also taken liberties with a number of facts as he’s become more confident of seeing these convictions prevail. It’s just as well that he’s known as a man of broad ideas rather than a micro-manager obsessed with detail and minutiae, given the inaccuracies that peppered his rhetoric.

 

"I will say something to the English," he said at the end of August, as if 'the English' were the only ones who have grave reservations (and worse) about the consequences of a switch to winter, and about the way in which it is peremptorily presented as 'the solution' to a self-created problem. But 'the English' are not alone.

 

The Association of European Football Leagues made a formal representation to FIFA on that subject earlier in August, which was copied to Platini in person. Joseph Blatter was reminded, quite tersely, that changing the dates of the World Cup was not FIFA’s prerogative, but should be the subject of a lengthy consultation process involving all of football’s major stakeholders.

 

Jeffrey Webb, the charismatic president of CONCACAF and newly-elected member of FIFA’s ExCo, has also publicly stated his opposition to a change of date which would contradict the terms of the 'confidential' 2022 WC tender documents. These, by the way, do specify June and July, unambiguously.

 

“We respect your calendar for 150 years," Platini went on. “For one month in 150 years you can change. I played in winter all my life, in the snow, in the rain, because of your calendar. You can change it for one month - I don't ask any more."

 

Let’s pass over the bizarre claim that non-English leagues were forced to adopt the FA’s calendar when no one ever asked them to. Let’s consider one of the fundamental tenets of Platini's position: that holding the 2022 World Cup in winter – January being his favoured option – would only affect "one month" of the existing football calendar. He should know that this isn’t the case, by a long way.

 

 

In 2012, FIFA asked its experts to come up with a reasoned schedule of the 2014 World Cup. The Executive Committee – of which Platini was and remains a member – decreed that clubs should release their players no later than May 19 2014, the final being played in Rio on 13 July. That’s already close to two months, not one, and far more than the average winter break in European leagues, to which must be added a period of rest for those players who will have taken part in the latter stages of the tournament.

 

The UEFA president would argue, with justification, that old Europe has no absolute, transcendent right to determine when the World Cup finals should be played, despite its economic pre-eminence in global football – and despite the fact that 69% of the players who took part in the 2010 South Africa tournament were employed by European clubs.

 

But it is not just the former colonial Western powers which consider football to be a winter sport. Give or take the odd brief break, the Australian league runs from October to April, the Argentinian torneo inicial and torneo final from August to June, the Mexican Liga MX and the Iran Pro League from August to May, whilst the Moroccan Botola Pro is competed from September to June.

 

To present the winter-summer debate as a confrontation between a Europe jealous of its powers and emerging countries which aren’t given their fair due would be twisting the truth. The only argument which stands to reason when the winter switch is discussed is that everyone bar the Qataris – at least in public - agrees that kicking a football on a pitch when you can fry an egg on the roof of a Bentley is not the brightest of ideas. But what is the alternative? Is there one?

 

The impact of a switch to Qatar’s clement winter would not be felt over a single year, contrary to what some of its proponents have said. It is now accepted that a trouble-free transition would require a minimum of three calendar years, as changes would have to be reversed when FIFA reverted to a summer format for the 2026 World Cup.

 

Think of the legal implications for players’ contracts, broadcasting and sponsorship agreements and the like that would accompany a re-definition of what constitutes a football season. Think of these countries where training and playing at the height of the summer is impossible – all those of the Mediterranean basin to start with – countries which would have no choice but to soldier on in unbearable heat to accommodate a winter World Cup.

 

This logistical nightmare would also be a costly operation for all of FIFA’s 209 affiliated associations, humble as they may be. Because of the quasi-universal pyramidal structure of the game, lower divisions and amateur football too would have to re-think their modus operandi. When a rock of that size is dropped in a pond, the ripples reach the furthest shores.

 

All leagues and all nations are ultimately interconnected; through the ebb and flow of promotion and relegation; through continental competitions and transfers. What we are talking about is a radical transformation of football as we know it, not a temporary variation which its adversaries could easily live with if only they showed a little more good will.

 

No provisions have been made for this transformation yet. No one knows for sure whom the responsibility for this colossal upheaval lies with. No feasibility study has been commissioned – none that has been made public, at least. All we know is that the FIFA ExCo will listen to what Blatter has to say on the subject at its next Congress on October 3 and 4 and will in all likelihood follow his recommendation – that is, that the 2022 World Cup cannot and will not be played in the summer in Qatar.

 

Beyond that? The unknown.

 

[SAS_Robben]

Não é o campeonato alemão que pára de meio Dezembro até meio janeiro? E eles não perdem qualidade com isso, pelo contrário. Não vejo drama nenhum, honestamente.

 

Para quase mês e meio.

E como é óbvio o Beckenbauer foi logo o primeiro a defender o Mundial em Janeiro. O que também não admira ou não fosse o futebol alemão o maior beneficiado caso isso aconteça. É que nem tinha de mexer no seu calendário...

 

Este Mundial no Qatar é um absurdo que só existe porque muita gente meteu ou vai meter muito dinheiro ao bolso. Apenas e só isso.