Ukraine in Arabic | Qatar is ready for World Cup anytime
KYIV/Ukraine in Arabic/ The Qatar 2022 World Cup Organizing Committee has stated that the country will be ready to stage the tournament at whatever time of year is decided.
After being instituted last year, FIFA’s task force looking into the timing of the tournament met earlier this week for the first time.
The task force, which will meet again in November, was attended by representatives of confederations, clubs and leagues as well as player’s union and Qatar 2022 Organizing Committee representatives.
Al-Khater told: "I think it was positive. I think everyone recognizes that the World Cup is the most important footballing event and I think everybody wants to make sure it is successful, that it comes out in its best form, but they want to make sure they protect the interests of their leagues or of their football associations."
"I think everybody realizes we need to work together to come to a solution."
Much has been said about moving the tournament to a November slot, or possibly even January, but al-Khater said it would take more than one meeting of the task force to come anywhere near a solution.
Asked about the inevitability of a winter tournament, he added: "I can’t say for sure, because this was the first meeting since the task force was initiated about a year ago."
"In the next meeting or two the picture will be clearer".
But he was able to calm fears that a summer tournament would be risky for the health of the players and was excited by the cooling technology that would be in place.
He said the construction process was “progressing very well” in Qatar.
"We’re going according to our schedule. We’ve already launched the designs of two of our stadiums. We’re going to be launching a third, fourth and fifth before the end of the year.
All these five stadiums are going to be under construction before the end of the year. We’re in a very good place and confident of delivering on time."