Making it up as they go along…
FIFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke has said that no compensation will be paid to clubs despite the decision to move the 2022 Qatar World Cup to a winter date impacting the domestic football season.
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Valcke also confirmed that UEFA along with the majority of other confederations wanted the controversial tournament to end on December 23rd.
This comes after recommendations published yesterday from a FIFA task-force that the tournament should be held from late November to late December, rather than the proposed summer start date when the tournament was first bid for by Qatar.
There was also suggestions that the tournament will be four days shorter than usual, 28 instead of 32, and the African Cup of Nations in 2023 will therefore be move to a summer event to ensure adequate recovery time for those taking part in both.
The Premier League and Football League have all already raised objections to this decision, saying it is too close to Christmas and will therefore cause chaos with the fixture-heavy festive calendar.
Yet, despite objections such as this, Valcke insisted that no apology was necessary and has also ruled out giving any form of compensation for the disruption to the domestic season of a huge number of clubs across the globe.
“It’s not perfect, we know that – but why are we talking about compensation? It’s happening once we’re not destroying football,” said Valcke at a press conference in Doha earlier today, reports BT Sport.
“Why should we apologise to the clubs? We have had an agreement with the clubs that they are part of the beneficiaries. It was 40 million (US) dollars in 2010 and 70 million in 2014.
“We are bringing all our people to enjoy the sporting and financial results of the World Cup.
“I definitely don’t feel I have to apologise for the decision made yesterday to confirm that the World Cup will not be played in the summer.”
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