was thinking tonight.....

if this is to be a winter world cup, how early will they have to start changing the european leagues to fit it and do you think they will instantly revert to winter leagues after??

Don't see why so many people are getting their knickers in a twist about it. All you do is start your season as early as possible (a 4 week break from previous season is sufficient, IMO), break for the World Cup and then pick up where you left off and play through to an end. Absolutely no reason why they should be looking to shift the entire football calendar to a summer league to accommodate the WC

No need ..... a 10 team league will have helped to move Scotland so far down the rankings by stifling youth development that we will narrowly miss out on this World Cup in a playoff with the Solomon Islands to get into the qualifiers so no break will be required !!!

Seriously though .... experienced the very same situation this year in MLS which is already a summer league and one which probably has as many, if not more international players than the SPL. All that MLS did was to postpone all games for two weeks (for the first round stages) and then games recommenced. We could do the same and if any one (or two) team(s) had multiple players on International duty then postpone their games a bit longer.

It's not going to be played in the Winter anyway so nothing to worry about .

looks like DC is right .....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/international/8259204/Qatar-reject-winter-World-Cup-in-2022-as-rift-with-Sepp-Blatter-and-Fifa-casts-further-doubt-over-tournament.html

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5gaaJTJ89_6wQ9PbA6987jtlGuyiQ?docId=N0263551295524371059A

At the start of this month in Doha we had the men's tennis - next month it is the athletics, women's tennis and the golf and by the end of April most outdoor sports cease as the temperatures start to rise above 30. Last summer we had 50+ and it does get unbearable if you are out in the sun for more than 10 or 15 mins running about. The following are the avg monthly min and max temps:

Jan min 12 max 22

Feb min 14 max 23

Mar min 17 max 27

Apr min 20 max 32

May min 25 max 38

Jun min 28 max 41

Jul min 29 max 42

Edited January 20, 201115 yr by Tichy_Blacks_Back

In my opinion the stadiums will be engineered and will include state of the art cooling systems (al saad stadium already has a system installed and a proto type of the new design was show cased as part of the bid package when FIFA delegation visited town). A number of new light rail transport systems will be built and will all be air conditioned (the first air conditioned bus stops were installed across the city last year). The biggest issue I see is the players training facilities but I am sure they will sort that out also. It will not be like the US where there was none of those technologies in use to protect players or fans from the heat. At the end of the day they put a strong bid together and it was accepted so it is up to Qatar if they want to offer to move the tournament forward a month but it will not be a winter world cup.

Just out of interest, as most of us on CTO are Scotland fans why are we letting something that won't concern us bother us?

Our game is already pretty shambolic and the SPL Mafia seem intent in making sure we never have a system that allows clubs to bring through talent without fear.

Sorted you are absolutely right - this is just an extract from Arthur Macdonald's article in the Gulf Daily News earlier this week where he gives Scotland a mention:

What surprises me even more is that Qatar wanted to hold the finals in the first place.

Given their recent performance in the Asian Cup their participation in the 2022 event is unlikely to last very long unless they grant citizenship to a lot of Brazilians.

Furthermore their short spell in the competition is likely to be somewhat of a sporting embarrassment as the best results most teams from the region have achieved in the World Cup tend to be managing to draw with Scotland.

Given there is little sign that Scotland will be capable of qualifying for any international competition any time in the foreseeable future, even that small consolation will be denied Qatar.

One positive thing about having Qatar as the venue is that its central position means that it is in a time zone accessible to about 80 per cent of the world.

Presumably FIFA decided that this would allow it to maximise the amount of cash it hauls in from television rights.

FIFA, like most of the business of football these days, seems to have more to do with television advertising than thinking of the poor fans who take the trouble to turn up and pay at the turnstiles.

It's hard to belive a newpaper like the sun, but been alot of rumours and stories like this - FIFA bosses are working on a secret plan to turn football into a summer sport

Below is an article from this morning's Gulf Times. There were rumours going around the stadium last night that there were fans with tickets locked out. The same thing happened to me at the Emir Cup Final (equivalent to the Scottish Cup Final) last season but my solution has been to turn up early for any big game now.

It looked like this problem had been mostly resolved through new electronic ticketing and seat allocation etc throughout these finals but it looks like it hasn't gone away. The stewarding last night (although they were there in numbers) was weak and many spectators were just sitting where they wanted and eventually in the section where I was the stewards just gave up trying to get people to move. The problem is once you have a large amount of people in the stadium who don't have a ticket or the correct tickets (not sure how that has happened with the new controls in place but it has) then you are always going to have a problem controlling this type of thing.

Can you imagine the kind of problems you would get if this happened at a major World Cup match or even worse at the Final. It appears last night the solution again was to just close the gates and call out the riot police to quell anybody looking to cause any trouble because they can't get in.

I am in fact surprised this has even made the news as it is usually just hushed up - I suspect because of the magnitude of last night's game it is something that couldn't be ignored this time. I wonder what Mr Platini and Blatter made of it from their comfortable seats in the VVIP area.

Ticket problems disappoint fans

Thousands of football fans were disappointed at being prevented from entering to watch the Asian Cup final between Japan and Australia at Khalifa Stadium last night despite having purchased tickets prior to the game.

Ticket-holders expressed their disbelief at the situation and made clear their anger at officials who claimed that ?it is full inside?.

Fans could not contain themselves as they could view spare seats from outside the stadium.

?We were some of the first to arrive when the gates were shut -- no-one had a clue what was going on,? said one angry British fan, ?it was utter chaos and I feel really sorry

for the Australian and Japanese families trying to get in as this is one of the biggest games they would ever get to see their teams play

in.?

?That was horrendous,? said another fan.

Fans clad in Australian and Japanese shirts and flags waved their tickets in frustration, visibly upset at being turned away despite arriving more than half an hour before the kickoff.

?If you arrive with plenty of time before the match, you expect to be allowed in,? said one Australian fan, ?I was really looking forward to watching this game live, and now I am really angry.?

An interesting read - a more detailed report from Al Jazeera....

Al Jazeera Report