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Home / Sport / Olympics

Ski boss worried about moving 2022 WCup to January

AP
2 Oct, 2013 09:17 PM4 mins to read

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ZURICH (AP) As FIFA's ruling board prepares to debate switching the 2022 World Cup dates in Qatar, skiing's top official has warned that a move could kill interest in winter sports ahead of that year's Olympics.

International Ski Federation (FIS) President Gian Franco Kasper told The Associated Press on Wednesday he is "getting worried" that FIFA is pushing to move the World Cup from its traditional June-July dates in the crowded world sports calendar because of the summer heat in Qatar.

"It would be only fair within sports federations to respect each other," Kasper, an IOC member from Switzerland who has served on the coordination commission of each Winter Games since the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.

A January tournament in Qatar favored by influential European football leaders would "kill not only most commercial sites for the winter sports, but also for the public," Kasper cautioned.

On Friday, FIFA President Sepp Blatter will lead his executive committee in talks he said should decide that the tournament cannot be played in the Qatari summer.

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Agreement is unlikely, with Blatter's board expected to call for a working group to assess the potential impact of change on the traditional football calendar.

Still, Blatter has suggested a November kickoff in 2022 and as an Olympic body member because of his FIFA position has promised new IOC President Thomas Bach to avoid a Winter Games clash. Bach's native Germany intends to propose Munich as host city.

UEFA President Michel Platini prefers playing in January, finishing just days before the 2022 Winter Olympics.

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"If they do it in November, even December, we wouldn't like it but it's something we can live with," Kasper told The AP in an interview. "In January, I tell you very honestly, this is our main season not only for skiing, for all winter sports."

In FIS's signature Alpine discipline, the classic men's downhills on consecutive January Saturdays at Wengen, Switzerland, and Kitzbuehel, Austria, could both be forced into head-to-head contests with late-afternoon kickoffs in Qatar.

Kasper said most sports run by the seven Winter Olympics federations would be affected by the clash for broadcasters, sponsors and advertisers.

"They will say, 'We should have less spectators on television, why should we pay the same amounts?' This is understandable," the veteran FIS leader said. "There is a saturation if you have sports for only two months, with the soccer World Cup and then the Winter Olympics."

Kasper said broadcasters would also struggle to cover major events back to back even if the dates did not overlap.

"From a marketing side and particularly from the television networks they could not even prepare their equipment in time in the right place," said Kasper, who was in Sochi last week ahead of the Feb. 7-23 Winter Games. "All the trucks from (United States rights holder) NBC for the installation for the broadcasting center are already there. They need at least two months to rebuild it up."

Competing with football's World Cup would also take broadcast hours and fans' interest away from the skiing disciplines plus events like biathlon, bobsled, luge and speedskating which rely on exposure in January, and even more so to fuel interest in Olympics years.

"If there are big soccer games, we feel it. If (the World Cup) would be in January then we really do, there is no question," said Kasper, adding that he did not understand why FIFA pressed for change. "For me, the item was closed two years ago when Blatter said, 'We stick to our original dates as it should be.'"

Qatari organizers insist they can fulfill their bid promise to stage the World Cup "in summer in cool, comfortable and safe conditions" for players, officials and fans.

"If the international football community reaches a consensus to move the event to an alternate date, we are able to accommodate that change," the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee said in a statement Wednesday. "Our commitment to cooling technologies will continue, for without it certain parts of the world will be denied the right to host such events."

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