No compensation for clubs for winter World Cup: FIFA

February 26, 2015 - 12:17:30 am

FROM LEFT: Nasser Al Khater, Executive Director, Communications & Marketing at Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee, Hassan Al Thawadi, Secretary General of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy and FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke attend a press conference, yesterday in Doha.

By Armstrong Vas

DOHA: Football governing body FIFA says it will not compensate clubs and leagues unhappy about plans to play the 2022 Qatar World Cup in November and December.

“There will be no compensation,” said FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke while addressing a press conference here yesterday, after a Qatar 2022 Organising Committee board meeting.

A FIFA task force on Tuesday made a provisional recommendation that the 2022 tournament should be played in late November to December instead of the traditional June-July period, which will be ratified by FIFA next month.

“It’s not perfect, we know that - but why are we talking about compensation? It’s happening once we’re not destroying football,” he added.

“There are seven years to reorganise,” added Valcke.

On Tuesday, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge Chairman of the European Clubs’ Association (ECA) chairman said the clubs would demand financial settlements for the disruption.

The move to have a November-December World Cup will force some of the major leagues to be rescheduled.  Average temperatures in Qatar are around 25 degrees Celsius towards the end of the year, roughly 15 degrees lower than the traditional World Cup months.

Valcke, however, said FIFA owed no apology for the scheduling of the World Cup, which will force a number of leagues to change their local league schedules.

“Why should we apologise to the clubs? We have had an agreement with the clubs that they are part of the beneficiaries. It was $40m in 2010 and $70m 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.”

FIFA’s Executive Committee will meet in Zurich next month to ratify the taskforce’s recommendation of the November-December World Cup and also the date of the final. English Premier League (EPL) Chief Executive Richard Scudamore says the final which will be close to Christmas will cause havoc with the traditional festive club programme and will campaign for an earlier final date ahead of the decision by FIFA’s Executive Committee on March 20.

But Valcke said most of the confederations, including the European governing body UEFA want December 23 as the date for the Qatar 2022 World Cup final - but that no decision has been made, although December 18 is also a possibility.

“Most confederations say they want the World Cup to end on the 23rd of December,” the official added. Valcke also said the duration of the 2022 competition would be reduced from 32 to 28 days, as a “concession” to leagues and the clubs.

Valcke also appeared to confirm the deal to extend the USA TV rights deal with Fox to include the 2026 World Cup had been done to avert the threat of any legal action over its 2022 deal.

“We have done what we had to do in order to protect FIFA and the organisation of the World Cup,” he said.

Meanwhile, the 2021 FIFA Confederations Cup – the traditional World Cup rehearsal - will not be held in Qatar, Valcke added.

The tournament is often described as a World Cup warm-up given that allows the host nation to fine tune its facilities and conduct a test run some 12 months before the main tournament.

Valcke said the tournament, which pits the World Cup holders against the hosts and champions of FIFA’s six confederations, will be played “in an Asian country,” which has still to be determined and during the traditional June-July window.

Qatar would hold another FIFA competition, which is yet to be decided, which will serve as the operational test event for Qatar in November-December 2021, a year before the World Cup.

THE PENINSULA

Vijayan says ‘sleeping giant’ can bounce back

February 18, 2015 - 12:29:48 am

Former Indian captain I M Vijayan speaking to journalists in Doha yesterday. The Kerala-born striker was on a two-day visit to Doha. Below: Vijayan poses for a picture with his former state team-mate Asif Saheer.

Pictures by: Salim Matramkot

By Armstrong vas

Doha: Football’s ‘sleeping giant’ India can bounce back to the top only if they concentrate on the grassroots programmes in a more aggressive and professional way, former captain I M Vijayan said yesterday.

The 45-year-old, who rose from humble backgrounds and formed one of the deadliest forward lines the Indian football team had ever seen with Baichung Bhutia, said the recently concluded Indian Super League (ISI) is the best thing to have happened for the game in a cricket-crazy country of 1.2 billion.

“ISI (Indian Super League) has given a new dimension to football in the country. We have not seen so many people come for matches and all the venues across India. We need to build the momentum. The ISI itself cannot take us to the World Cup. We need to have youth programmes. All the teams have promised to launch the grassroots programmes but I have been impressed by what the Mumbai team is doing for the youngsters,” said Vijayan, who scored 40 goals for the national team in 79 appearances.

Vijayan was one of the thousands of Indians who were bowled over by the ISI show, which saw the involvement of cricketers and Indian movie actors as owners and co-owners of franchise teams.

“It was great opportunity to watch some of the world greatest players in action. David Trezeguet, Robert Pires, Alessandro Del Piero, David James, Luis Garcia, and Nicolas Anelka, were some of the players whom we had watched only on TV, but it was a great feeling to see them action on Indian football pitches,” the striker, who retired from international football in 2003 said.

ISL, organised by IMG-Reliance and backed by the All India Football Federation (AIFF), was played among eight clubs - Atletico de Kolkata, Kerala Blasters FC, Delhi Dynamos FC, North East United FC, Team Pune, Team Mumbai, Team Goa and Team Bengaluru on a home away basis, which was won by Atletico de Kolkata.

Vijayan, who was one of the most sought after striker on the Indian circuit in a career which began with Kerala Police in 1987 and ended with West Bengal’s East Bengal in 2005, said an aggressive marketing campaign by ISI made the league a huge success in terms of record crowds.

“People came to see the top foreign stars play but also we have also to give credit to the marketing people. Not many foreign stars of repute have played together in one league in India, which made it a success compared to the existing Indian I-League” he said. The striker rued the fact that he did not get a chance to play in a foreign league.

“During my time there were no good player agents in India. Compatriot Baichung Bhutia, is my good friend, he had people around him who promoted him,” said Vijayan, who played for clubs in Indian states of West Bengal, Goa and Punjab besides Kerala.

In 1999, Bhutia became only the second Indian footballer to play professional football in Europe after Mohammed Salim. Bhutia turned out for English club Bury.

The Peninsula

Qatar World Cup will be catalyst of change: Valcke

Qatar World Cup will be catalyst of change: Valcke

By Armstrong Vaz

Doha: FIFA World Cup football finals have been a catalyst of change wherever it has been held and the 2022 showpiece event in Qatar will be no different, says FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke.

The FIFA secretary general said the football governing body learns from lessons of past tournaments and uses the World Cup to change the reality of several countries.

“We use the World Cup as a way to change a country,” said the official of the world football governing body about the quadrennial event, the first one to be held in the Middle East.

Valcke was addressing a press conference on Wednesday along with Hassan Al Thawadi, Secretary General of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy after the first meeting of the Qatar World Cup Local Organizing Committee (LOC) with FIFA representatives.

"In a nutshell I am very happy with what we have seen,” Valcke said.

Valcke said he had visited a number of stadiums including the construction site of Al Wakrah Stadium as well as the workers' housing, saying that progress has been made in the standards of workers’ rights in all World Cup-related projects.
 

"I have to say that if the standard for all construction sites in Qatar reaches the level of standard we have for all the specific World Cup construction sites, then a big step will be contributed to these working conditions and that will be part, again, of the power of the World Cup,” Valcke said.

Qatar has been under mounting pressure over its treatment of 1.4 million migrant workers who constitute more than three-quarters of country’s total population and outnumber the local workforce by almost 20 to one.

"It's clear that there are problems and there are things to be solved and there is an ongoing discussion with ILO (International Labour Organization) and different organizations," said Valcke.

 “It's clear there are problems and things to be solved," he added.

 Valckle said FIFA president Sepp Blatter had a meeting with the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani over the labour related issues and FIFA expects a solution to the problem, but cautioned the changes cannot happen overnight.

“We are not expecting a decision tomorrow morning but this problem will be solved before the 2022 World Cup. FIFA president Sepp Blatter had a meeting with the Emir of Qatar and had a discussion with His Highness (Emir).  We want to ensure that this is taken on the top of the agenda and will be solved before the World Cup when all the attention of the world will be on Qatar.”

Qatar is under pressure from FIFA to reform the restrictive kafala system of sponsorship - in which employers effectively own labourers and control their freedom to leave the country.

Valcke said the 2022 edition of the Cup will be a compact world Cup as it will save the effort of transferring participant teams between cities, which will give them more rest and concentration.

Thawadi on the other hand said the World Cup will be a catalyst for change.

He explained several steps the Qatari government has taken over the last few years.

He said the government has issued many pledges such as replacing the sponsorship system with a new one based on contracts in addition to other human rights-related legislations. 

Thawadi also affirmed Qatar's commitment to its responsibilities towards an ideal organization of the World Cup. 

Earlier, the LOC held their first board meeting with representatives from FIFA in Doha yesterday, marking another major milestone in the preparations for the 2022 World Cup.