[V]ital health and practicality issues relating to the 2022 summer event in Qatar will not go away.From FIFA's perspective, perhaps the debate over scheduling will distract from other issues, like the internal politics of football governance.
Last weekend, Michel Platini, who played in major soccer tournaments and now organizes them, stirred the pot. “I am in favor of Qatar under two conditions,” he said. “Because of the heat, the World Cup will need to be held in the winter. With over 40 degrees, playing football is impossible, and for the fans it would be unbearable,” he said, referring to temperatures that reach upward of 104 Fahrenheit. Platini also said: “The neighboring countries must be included so that the World Cup is staged throughout the entire region.”
Breathtaking. One of the finest players of his time, now Europe’s leading soccer administrator and a vice president of FIFA, Platini gave his vote to Qatar when the bidding was concluded in December 2010.
Yet today, he has doubts and conditions.
In other news, the CAS has upheld a rules change in the African football confederation that prevented a challenge to the leadership of long-time incumbent Issa Hayatou:
Never mind that, did you hear about the Qatar 2022 schedule debate?FIFA executive committee member Jacques Anouma was barred from being a candidate to lead African football on Tuesday, losing his legal challenge to stand for election against longtime incumbent Issa Hayatou.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed Anouma's appeal against the Confederation of African Football, which refused to accept his election bid after he was made ineligible by rules changes engineered by Hayatou.
Hayatou, a FIFA vice-president from Cameroon, will be the only candidate to extend his 26-year CAF reign at its congress this weekend in Marrakech, Morocco.
A new vision in African football is now needed "more than ever," Anouma said in statement published on his personal website.
"Despite our immense disappointment, our determination to bring about real change in the management of African football remains intact," the Ivory Coast official said.
The Cairo-based confederation published a CAS statement announcing the verdict on its website without further comment.
Hayatou steered through new election rules last September which allowed only "current or former members" of the CAF executive committee to challenge him.
Anouma was barred because his FIFA position gives him only non-voting board membership.
"The CAS has confirmed that the CAF executive committee had jurisdiction to refuse the candidature of Jacques Anouma," the court said in a statement.
Qatar’s attitude now indicates that it is its will to move to winter. Yes, there are people wanting to move. However, you must have noticed that both the UK and Germany league's leaders have said recently that they are against the move to winter. Haven't you heard that?
ReplyDeleteYes, there are numerous people asking for that. But that was led by the pre-decided UEFA leader who promised to move before the vote.
Why there should be a debate? Many don't like it. There is no need to debate. If you want to change, apply to FIFA. Else, give up and surrender the right back to FIFA.
I have just woken to feel that actually Qatar knows by now that there is no solution to the heat problem in the stadia, unless fully enclosed. There is no problem to cool down an enclosed 60000 people stadium if enclosed like a huge shopping mall. However, if it is open, then there may be a problem resulting from the very hot wind coming from the deserts of the neighbouring Saudi Arabia.
In Australia, sometimes, there are winds coming down from the very hot deserts in the middle of the continent. Not very often, but may happen. As for Qatar, Eastern sea wind is not a huge problem. But if summer wind is coming from the inland deserts, then, there is no point of just having artificial floating clouds to provide shades on the stadia. Also, I am wondering how what they said a cooling effect like the skin of a lizard may work.
But if fully enclosed, then other problems arise, like fire escape, fire safety, appearance, and cost, etc.
So, what they are wanting for a debate is a hoax. Actually they can’t solve the problem. They should give up.
The engineers said in "The National, ae" (http://www.thenational.ae/business/travel-tourism/summer-and-controversy-reignite-debate-over-qatar-world-cup-plan) that I read today are nothing new:
All those saying of absorption chiller, solar panel, retractable roof, auto window curtain, air below the seats, thermo storage (ice storage) are nothing new. These are decades-old technologies. The only new saying is to link old technologies in a new way. But this is suspicious! Carbon neutral is very suspicious.
As a retired air-conditioning engineer and previous member of ASHRAE (American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air-conditioning Engineers), i dare to say: nothing new. And the saying of linking old technologies to a make a new invention is not true. Just improving.
As a retired environmentalist, having a master degree in environmental study, I am very reserved in the saying of "carbon-neutral".
By the way, absorption chillers have only one advantage: quiet running. It is not energy efficient. If really new generations of absorption chillers can be more energy efficient, I am objective in updating my knowledge.
That 500-seats model is not convincing to me at all. Scaling from 500 to 500,000 capacity is 1000 times bigger! All engineers are good mathematicians, knowing that this is not a linear proportional function. Even linear, it is 1000 times bigger.
Some professionals are just money wise professionals.
If air-conditioned stadia can really work, bring it on. I really want to learn.