FIFA, die in a fire

Sepp Blatter evidently wants to play the 2022 World Cup in the winter, which pretty much proves that Qatar's magic air-conditioning was bull (I wish the Americans had promised world peace in return for the Cup, it'd be more likely). Twitter is all atwitter with people claiming that a shift will hurt viewership in the United States, and stunt the growth of the game. The idea is that people won't watch because of NFL football in the States, especially if the Cup conflicts with the NFL playoffs.

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An issue that I haven't seen mentioned is that while I'm sure overall coverage will be affected - ESPN will never cede to another sport; in fact, they rarely do so even during the NFL offseason - the actual games will not conflict with NFL games, unless the NFL decides to play in the morning. Time zone differences will prevent that. I'm not sure whether this is something nobody else has realized or whether they're dismissing it intentionally, but I think it bears mentioning.

The true issues are twofold: first, the US fanbase will not grow during a Qatar World Cup or even, more than likely, during a Russia Cup, due to the aforementioned time zone differences. The casual fan could fairly easily spend an afternoon watching soccer during South Africa 2010, but he's not getting up at 7 am to watch a Spain-Uruguay match. Soccer fans will watch, but that's not going to raise American interest. I'm not implying that it's all about the US here; just that FIFA has expressed a desire in the past to expand the game here, and the next two World Cups are more than likely going to be missed opportunities on that front.

Scheduling is also a major issue. The world football schedule is built around a winter club season with a summer offseason. That offseason is where the World Cup gets slotted in. If the Cup were to be contested during the winter, it would wreak havoc on club team schedules. The only options would be outrageously early starts and late ends for league seasons, with a month-long break in the middle for the World Cup. It's been done, in a way - the NHL does something similar to allow its players to play in the Olympics, but the Olympics are much shorter than the World Cup. I just feel that a winter Cup would be logistically impossible.

I take great issue with this idea, for those reasons and one more. As I hinted earlier, Qatar was granted this World Cup based on a bid that included air-conditioned stadiums. This talk of moving the Cup to the winter is a tacit admission that there's at least a good chance that one of the main pillars of the Qatar bid is not possible. In my opinion, that means one of two things (or possibly both): Qatar submitted a fraudulent bid, or FIFA approved a bid based on fantasy. Neither is acceptable.

I am American, and I wanted the 2022 World Cup to be played in the United States. That said, that's not why I'm upset about this. I would have been disappointed, but not angry had Australia or Japan or Spain/Portugal or Holland/Belgium been awarded the Cup. What upsets me is that we lost to a country that it clearly at best not able to back up its promises, and at worst flat-out lied to win. Either way, this isn't making me feel any particular confidence that a Qatar World Cup can be successful.