FIFPro Secretary General Theo van Seggelen said that the heat at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar "should be the least" of football's worries "given the more immediate concerns surrounding next year's competition in Brazil," according to REUTERS. Van Seggelen said that "other important issues such as the transfer system and third-party ownership of players were also being shunted out of the limelight by the debate over the timing of the Qatar World Cup." He said, "It astonishes me that the media is obsessed with Qatar in nine years' time and does not seem very bothered about the World Cup in 2014." Van Seggelen said that "travelling and heat were FIFPro's biggest concerns for next year, where some matches are being scheduled to kick off at 13:00 local time in tropical venues." He said that "players had already suffered the effects of the heat at this year's Confederations Cup." Van Seggelen: "I spoke to the Italian and Spanish players after the semifinal and they said it was impossible to play extra time in that heat. The travelling is also a problem, you have four-hour flights in some cases and when you have just played a tough game and only have a few days to recover, that also has an effect" (REUTERS, 9/24).
