Organizing another World Cup in the winter is unacceptable if major changes have not been made on how the competition is planned, the world players’ union FIFPro said.
FIFPro has disclosed a report on how the Qatar World Cup that occured in November and December in 2022 was a burden to players output.
The Basic Post-tournament time for players to recover and get back to full fitness was reduced from 37 days to 8 in order not to hamper the calendar of European football.
FIFpro secretary General speaking about the winter world cup
The general secretary of FIFPro, Jonas Baer-Hoffmann said that; a winter world cup “should not be a viable option for anybody.”
A world cup that might be held in years to come could be set for December as Saudi Arabia is interested in a bid to be the host of the tournament in 2030.
European nations like Portugal and Spain could also organize a world cup that would go down in the winter.
The head of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, stated that World Cup in winter had resulted in better games, using the Qatar World Cup as an example.
Infantino said: “Playing in November and December has had an impact, we have seen it with the quality of the games when compared with a summer World Cup played at the end of an exhausting season for the players.”
However, Jonas Baer-Hoffmann stressed that: “Repeating what we had this time is clearly not acceptable.”
Due to the competition that went down halfway through the European footballing campaign, the time for putting together the tournament in Qatar was also reduced from the normal 31 days to a mere 7 days.
The FIFPro head made further assertions saying: “If you want to pursue a winter World Cup again, you need to get into conversations with the leagues to completely change their schedules to provide appropriate training and recovery time.”
“That would mean a two or two-and-a-half month break from competition. I find it unlikely they would agree to that.”
A defender for the Polish national team, Kamil Glik, represented his club Benevento four days after his nation had crashed out from the World Cup.
Manchester United’s defender, Raphael Varane also played for the English side eight days following the loss of France in the final of the tournament in Qatar.
The 29-year-old center-back has afterwards hung his boots internationally, as he compared playing at the big stage to a washing machine because “you never stop”.
In a post-tournament research conducted by FIFPro, they said that most footballers want a minimum of 14 days preparation time and a time of recuperation between 14 and 28 days.
This might be a problem at the World Cup set to go down in three years time, which is planned to host 48 nations and more matches put forward as the current three-team groups is already in line to be thrown away.
The Federation of International football has emphasized that the extra days will be taken from the time of preparation for the tournament.
