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Zwanziger doubtful on Qatar

September 22, 2014

Qatar will not host the World Cup in 2022, according to Theo Zwanziger, the German member of the FIFA Executive Committee. The former head of the German football association thinks fans and players are at risk.

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Theo Zwanziger DFB Präsident Porträt
Image: picture-alliance/dpa

The former president of Germany's DFB football association, Theo Zwanziger, has cited high summer temperatures as the reason he thinks Qatar will lose the right to host international football's biggest global tournament, the World Cup, in 2022.

"I think that at the end of the day the 2022 World Cup will not take place in Qatar," Zwanziger said in an interview with German website Sport Bild Plus. "Doctors say, and I had insisted on this point in the protocol, that they cannot be responsible for a World Cup held in summer in these conditions."

The idea of switching the World Cup to cooler winter months has already been suggesed, but does not sit well with many officials of Europe's biggest football leagues. A change away from the usual June and July World Cup dates would disrupt playing schedules in the lucrative European club competitions, they say.

Cooling systems and corruption

While Qatar has reportedly developed stadium cooling systems, which will be in place to deal with summer temperatures that regularly reach the mid-40s Celsius, Zwanziger remains unconvinced.

"The World Cup doesn't just take place in the stadiums," he said. "There are fans coming from all over the world and they will have to deal with the heat."

"The first incident putting a life in danger would be subject to an investigation by public prosecutors. And nobody in the FIFA Executive Committee would want to be responsible for that."

Worker at a Qatar building site
Not just the heat: Qatar has also been criticized for the way that it treats foreign workersImage: Getty Images

When asked for clarification about Zwanzigers comments a FIFA spokesperson told news agency Reuters: "As Mr Zwanziger himself says it's his personal opinion."

Hosts still confident

But, in an interview with German newspaper Die Welt, Hassan al-Thawadi, from the Qatar 2022 organizing committee, said that he is sure that the 2022 World Cup will take place in Qatar.

"When people think of this region, it's rather in terms of conflict," al-Thawadi said. "The World Cup will be an occasion to unite peoples. It will have a positive legacy."

Controversy has plagued FIFA's awarding of the World Cup to Qatar since 2010, a decision that took place when Zwanziger headed the DFB. Both FIFA and Qatar World Cup organizers have fended off questions of corruption and the country has also been criticized for the conditions provided for migrant workers building the event's stadiums.

al/msh (AFP, dpa, Reuters)