The FIFA Task Force set up to recommend the best time of year to stage the 2022 World Cup in Qatar were always in an impossible position, from the moment they sat down to consider the options.
But Tuesday’s recommendation to stage it over November and December is probably the best option for all — even though Europe’s major clubs disagree.
The European giants will have seven years to get used to the idea that they must re-schedule five or six matches in the winter of 2022, for the first time in almost 100 years of World Cup soccer.
For once, they may have to put football’s wider interests ahead of their own, as Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim AlKhalifa, the head of the Task Force, implied.
