· Next
World Cup is in Brazil scheduled for 2014. FIFA decided that they deserve it
but now Brazilians are not sure about it.
· World
Cup of 2018 is allotted to Russia. Western Europe is not ready to accept this
benevolence of FIFA because so far it was considered as a right some special
countries.
·
The
2022 World Cup football tournament is at least nine year far from present day:
it is a fact but European imperial powers are not ready to accept the ability
of Asia.
· Football
World Cup is won by either European country or a Latin American country: it is
a truth, but it doesn’t mean that Africa and Asia has enough organisational
skill to conduct a big event like football world cup.
· All
countries in Arabian Gulf region has very strong summer: it is a reality and
not a new thing but it was daily remembered by European newspapers and they
forgot to mention that the region has a nice winter season too.
·
Some
countries believe that football is a game played only in cold regions in the world
and the world cup will occur only in the summer days of those places.
- FIFA, the international organisation for football is ruled by few Europeans and just one Latin American for more than a century: may be true but at present major clubs in the Europe is controlled by Russians, Americans and Arabs.
Very recently, while going through the
web site of an international news agency, suddenly come across some news items
about the weather conditions of Qatar. In the first sight, nothing felt wrong
but when it connected with football, one could easily make out that it was a
sheer campaign against the hosting rights of 2022 Football World Cup. The
article was detailing about the hot and humid condition of the region and how
it will affect the common people and the impact of such hot weather on football
players and the viewers.
Interestingly, Sepp Blatter –the
President of FIFA publically announced his personal interest to consider change
of schedule for 2022 world cup. When the bid was taken place, Qatar also
boasted its capacity to host the World Cup in 2022 summer but slowly they
retracted from it. Recently, Blatter again appeared with his argument for a
winter world cup in 2022 and he spun the ball into a public debate. Now his
statement is gathering momentum and media started publishing for and against
arguments about it.
Resistance against change of schedule
comes from the European football leagues. It will disrupt the traditional
schedule of the clubs who controls the world renowned players. According to
Michel Platini, the President of UEFA –the football federation of Europe, the
change of schedule for the 2022 is possible and there is enough time to make
such changes in the European league schedule. But Premier league is adamant
against the change in timing of the World Cup and they quote that “we are
opposed to the concept of a winter world cup for very obvious practical reason
that would impact all European domestic football”. Interestingly, the Premier
League is challenging the authority of UEFA in decision making.
Here, the power of money of football
elites becomes stronger than the wish and ability of the countries in Asia and
Africa. One can see the tone of colonial mentality between the lines when the
European Leagues push their arguments. In fact, the football leagues of West
and South European countries holds control of the best players in the world and
they are not ready to accept any disruption in their yearlong tournament
schedules. So, FIFA and its regional bodies were forced to accept the arguments
of the Football Associations in England, Spain, Germany, Italy, France, Holland
and Portugal.
In the bidding process, Qatar defeated
bids from South Korea, Japan, Australia and United States to win the ballot of
FIFA’s 22 executive members. Among the four, three has already hosted football
world cup and their bid for another round within the span of 20 years is not
reasonable. The continent Asia has many more countries than South Korea and
Japan and countries in the West Asia has equal or better tradition than Korea
and Japan in participating in world cup. Among the West Asian countries, only
Qatar was there in the final round of bidding and it shows that there is mutual
acceptance among the countries in the region. Nobody can challenge the
financial ability of this oil and gas rich country.
In such condition, the best weapon to
challenge them is building up the argument based on climatic condition of the
region. Yes, the desert region is hot and humid especially in summer. All of a
sudden, articles started appearing in web sites questioning the climatic
environment and human adaptability to play in such conditions. Just for the
sake of argument, a recent article appeared in Washington Post quoted that the temperature
of the Qatar region reaches 122 degrees in summer. They deliberately missed the
unit of the temperature whether it is in Fahrenheit or Celsius scale. The
figure is intentionally used to frighten the common people.
Some of the articles pushed to further
extend by saying the losers of the bid should go to court and challenge it and
pursue for a re-vote. What is the relevance of such challenge and re-vote?
Bidding is a right of any country who feels that they have the ability
(economically and politically) to conduct the tournament and it is not reserved
for some particular countries. There is also an argument found from a former
German soccer federation president who believes that the rescheduling of
tournament to winter season will badly affect the European League and will
threat the “unity” of German football. Theo Zwanziger continues that it better for
FIFA to cancel the bid of Qatar and give it to other country rather than
rescheduling it.
West Asian region has gone through
political turbulence for quiet long time but they produced decent football
teams and reached in the finals of world cup several times. Saudi Arabia, Iran,
Kuwait, Iraq, UAE etc., produced stunning performances in several editions of
the tournament. Their leagues are not well established as European leagues but
they use their resources to improve the standard of their leagues by buying
some of the best talents of world football. If FIFA is aiming to promote the
beautiful game all over the world, then they should obey the rights of other
countries apart from South Korea and Japan.
When the articles appeared in the web
medium highlighted the hot and humid condition of West Asian region, they
deliberately forgot or ignored that this
region have a reasonable winter and it is suitable for conducting the
tournament. On the basis of climatic conditions FIFA and European league try to
refuse the right of Qatar to conduct the World Cup in 2022 in reality they are
refusing the rights of many Asian and African countries who naturally located
in the Southern hemisphere.
Qatar is not even asking for any
change and they are willing to host it in June-July summer in the
air-conditioned stadiums. At the same time they are ready to adjust the timing
according to the winter season which would not require a drastic change in the
timing of the tournament like moving the fixture to January or February. Small
adjustment will be enough to organise the tournament in a better and feasible
way. Qatar has an autumn season in the month of April and May which is not very
hot and evening are more close to European weather. In fact, FIFA has history of adjusting the
timing of the tournament according to the climatic conditions of the hosting
country and Mexico who hosted twice organised the tournament in May-June rather
than the usual time of June-July. If FIFA really wants to promote the football
as a global game, they have to accommodate the climatic factors of the regions
and especially the hosting countries and should stop keeping such things in
favour of European football elites.
Football is one of the most globalised
games in the world and has reached out to almost all places in the world. It
has a higher viewership than Olympics or any other sports event. So, football
globalised the world before the information technology did it. FIFA and the
decision making regional authorities of World Football forget the fact that the
game football has grown beyond their thinking limits and now it become a fight
between money and viewership power.
Football is a colonial contribution as
well as the football leagues and the colonial powers continued the football
administration further. Even though, the game is globalised very much, still
one can trace the colonial connection works better in many occasions and FIFA
or any of its regional authorities could not do anything against it. In fact,
FIFA keeps a closed eye policy towards the transfer market activities in the
Europe especially against the moves from Africa and Latin America.
The debate on hosting of Qatar World
Cup 2022 will continue in the web and print medium. The European football
elites will always have a better edge in these discussions just because of the
power of their colonial languages. Somebody has to come out to challenge them
in same way and counter their arguments with proper answers and counter
arguments. If Qatar faces these challenges today, then India or any other Asian
country apart from South Korea and Japan or any African country except South
Africa, because of its climatic advantage, will face it tomorrow.
FIFA and UEFA should remember few
things. At present, good number of major football clubs in England, France,
Spain, and Italy are brought over by Asian or Russian money. Europe is still
struggling with its economic recession and will take much more time to come out
of it. Once FIFA accepted the fact that they will rotate the World Cup venue
between continents, it becomes a right of countries belongs to each continent
to participate in the bidding process. Africa is producing best talents, not
money but they will have a big say in hosting World Cup in Africa because it is
their right. According to their financial capacity and infrastructure facility,
they can bid for the venue and if they successfully convince the executive
members of FIFA in the process, they will get it.
FIFA cannot go back from this announcement
by saying this continent does not have any country who is capable to bid for
the venue. As part of promotion of football, it is the responsibility of FIFA
and the regional bodies to develop football in all countries to world standard.
Still there is high level pressure on the international football authority to
reduce the chances of Asia and Africa and consider more chances for Europe. We
all are living in the age of democracy and organisations like FIFA also should
become more democratic and transparent in their activities. Democracy was the
concept promoted by Europe but they forget to introduce it to FIFA. In many
places football was more than a game and was closely associated with the
concept of liberation. Equal participation is a right and not the benevolence
of the former colonial powers.
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