The World Cup is a popular international football tournament with countries from all over the world competing, it is traditionally held in the summer months every four years. The tournament is hosted by different nations, FIFA try to fairly distribute where the competition is played throughout the different FIFA Continental Zones, these zones are Africa, Asia, Oceania, Europe, South America and North & Central America & Caribbean. FIFA's executive committees, following a bidding process decide which country should host each World Cup, the decision is usually made six or seven years in advance of the event to give the host nation time to prepare. Next years tournament will be held in Brazil and we already know that in 2018 it will hosted by Russia and in 2022 Qatar. Since the announcement of the Qatari World Cup there has been controversy and upset due to the temperate climate of the country in the summer months.

Qatar is in Western Asia and is very similar to a desert in landscape, it is very close to the equator and rarely sees temperatures below 20c, in July the day time highs often exceed 40c. These hot and muggy atmospheric conditions are obviously not good for the players in their football shirts or the supporters that may travel to Qatar to watch. The Qatari government and sports committee have planned to construct fully enclosed air conditioned stadiums for the matches to be played in, however some have questioned this as football is traditionally an outdoor sport, and an air conditioned environment does not replicate natural air conditions. Â Sepp Blatter the FIFA president has addressed these concerns by suggesting that the 2022 Qatar tournament could be played in winter when the air temperature in Qatar is more bearable.

Medical evidence highlighting the very serious potential health risks of playing sport in such hot temperatures has initiated FIFA's executive committee to discuss proposals to change to a winter tournament, this discussion will take place in October, the concerns not only concern players, but also spectators, officials and media representatives. The Premier League is fervently against changing to a winter format, the Premier League usually runs between August and May, therefore losing many of its players to wear World Cup shirts for their national teams would cause serious disruption. Premier League board members have stated moving the competition to winter would disrupt three years of league football as well as broadcasting contracts. The leagues in Europe all run similar time scales to the Premier League these would also be disrupted, along with the Champions League competition and other European competitions. UEFA who controls the European football competitions has stated its willingness to work with FIFA to reschedule the competition dates to enable the World Cup to be played in winter. Some commentators have highlighted the fact that 'football is a world sport', the traditional format suits the European leagues schedule however, much of the Southern Hemisphere have to change their league schedules every four years to fit in with a summer competition, perhaps it is only fair that the European leagues are disrupted for a change. It being so far in advance it can also be argued that the UK and other European Leagues have got plenty of time for a reorganisation of domestic football to make way for a winter World Cup in 2022.

Do you think it was a good idea to allow Qatar to host the World Cup?

What is your opinion about moving it to winter?

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