LONDON — On Tuesday, FIFA effectively shifted the 2022 World Cup in Qatar from a summer event to a winter one. It turns out, as any intelligent observer knew all along, that it is too hot to stage a 64-game event in the Gulf state in June and July.
So, despite much gnashing of teeth by clubs in the 50 or so countries whose seasons will be cut in two, a decision was made to reschedule the tournament to November and December in 2022.
The decision in Doha, Qatar, will require a rubber stamp from FIFA’s executive committee in Zurich on March 20. But most people have expected this change, and all that remains is for clubs in Europe and elsewhere to try to extract compensation for their disrupted business.
Sheik Salman bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa of Bahrain, the joint leader of the FIFA task force that was asked to consider all options for the 2022 tournament, had said a month ago that a November-December World Cup was virtually a done deal.
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“Keep politics from our sport” was and still is the message. Putin has already stated that the Kremlin will waive visa restrictions for the World Cup. Blatter will soon run, and most likely easily win, another four-year term as FIFA president, taking him through the 2018 event.
He will accept that mantle with his customary lecture about soccer overcoming all the beastly differences that mankind makes for itself.
A version of this article appears in print on February 25, 2015, in The International New York Times. Order Reprints| Today’s Paper|Subscribe
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