FIFA with the Olympic Committee on Tuesday, assuring IOC vice president Craig Reedie that the World Cup in Qatar will not clash with the 2022 Winter Games.
The confusion arose earlier this month when FIFA president Sepp Blatter raised the possibility of holding the 2022 World Cup in January and February instead of the customary June and July. Astounded by this suggestion, Gian Franco Kasper of the International Ski Federation spoke out. 鈥淚t happened only two years ago that FIFA realized it might be warm in the summertime in Qatar,鈥 he said . 鈥淔IFA, please stay out of our winter months鈥. If you are sweating or not, that鈥檚 not our problem.鈥
FIFA vowed Tuesday that the events will not overlap, though it still hasn鈥檛 set definitive dates for Qatar. The IOC is pushing for November and December, but it鈥檚 just as likely FIFA will schedule it for the spring.
Meanwhile, the IOC will announce the host of the 2022 Winter Olympics in July. Oslo withdrew its bid this month, leaving only Beijing and Almaty, Kazakhstan, as candidates. The resounding lack of public support for Olympic bids this year is credited to the price of the Sochi Games, which ran somewhere around $51 billion.