KopTalk.com Forums Football Liverpool FC Forum Winter World Cup.

That’s one tournament that is bigger then the World Cup so Sepp can’t bully them.

is the winter olympics bigger?

No but the Olympics committee as an organisation if bigger and more important than FIFA, interesting times.

Sorry I meant the organisation but the Summer Olympics are bigger when it comes to viewing figures.

The Qatar organising committee are adamant they will be able to stage the 2022 World Cup in summer as planned.

The Middle Eastern nation was awarded the tournament by FIFA in a surprise decision three years ago.

And there have been widespread calls for the World Cup that year to therefore be switched to the winter because summer temperatures can top 45 degrees in Qatar.

However, although they are open to any switch, the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee say they will utilise air-conditioned stadiums if the tournament remains scheduled for the summer.

The committee said in a statement on Friday: "We bid for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in summer and are fully committed and working hard to deliver on these promises.

"If the international football community asks us to move the timetable for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar we are able to do so.

Cooling technology available

"But the development and implementation of environmentally-friendly cooling technologies remains an important legacy issue for our nation, region and many countries with similar climates.

"Creating comfortable conditions for public areas, walkways, training pitches and stadiums both during and after the World Cup means being able to play and watch football matches in summer throughout the country.

"Cooling technology has existed at Jassim bin Hamad (Al Sadd) Stadium since 2008. This June, the stadium (in Doha) hosted a FIFA World Cup qualifier in cool and comfortable conditions.

"We are now in the process of developing and perfecting sustainable cooling technologies to ensure that our Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup stadia, training grounds and fan zones offer the optimal temperature for players and fans to enjoy the games."

However, there remain concerns about how supporters will cope with the extreme temperatures away from the football grounds.

And, on Thursday, UEFA gave their full support to the idea of playing the tournament in the winter.

The Sports Minister has told Sky Sports News that FIFA President Sepp Blatter may have deliberately scuppered England's bid to host the World Cup in 2018.

Hugh Robertson MP believes the entire bidding process for both the 2018 and 2022 World Cups was "strange and obscure".

He said the turning point against England's bid came when Blatter addressed delegates just before the vote and reminded them of several less-than-complimentary stories about FIFA that had been pursued by the British media.

FIFA are holding a meeting this week to discuss moving the 2022 tournament in Qatar to winter because of the stifling summer heat.

Robertson told Sky Sports News: "I didn't agree with the way the competition was run but there was a competition: Qatar won it, and congratulations to them.

"The ambition to take football to parts of the world that haven't staged major tournaments before is the right one.

"If we're going to do that, we're going to have to make some compromises over the timings of the English leagues, the North European leagues.

"The interesting thing is that there was nobody there during that bidding process who really thought that staging that World Cup in the summer was a sensible option, so to me it was always obvious it was going to be moved to the winter."

Robertson believes that the bidding process as a whole for 2018 - won by Russia - and 2022 was flawed.

"It was a strange and obscure bidding process; had it all been made clear I suspect we might not have bid," he said.

"There were a lot of FIFA delegates who looked at either the Prime Minister or Prince William in the eye and promised their vote, and then didn't deliver.

"Thirdly, there was a slightly unsatisfactory chapter. I've been told by a number of people in the room that Sepp Blatter, straight before the vote, stood up and reminded the delegates what the British press had done to them in the period running up to the vote.

"That must have influenced the way some of those delegates who promised to give us their vote then didn't. Those three things make me feel very uneasy as a Sports Minister about the whole process."

It will all kick off when FIFA make their decision.

Hidden Slavery: Journos detained after filming World Cup labor horrors in Qatar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdHFEkq-ADA

Trapped & Terrified: Workers' misery 'turns World Cup in Qatar into shame'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6mOKcwMMtA

I don't think the world cup will happen in Qatar, there's to many hurdles to jump.