Club bosses said Qatar as World Cup host "is done," and financial fair play "is going to work."
Bayern Munich Chair Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Real Madrid Vice Chair Pedro Lopez Jimenez and AC Milan Organizing Dir Umberto Gandini took on football’s most pressing issues -- Qatar’s World Cup, financial fair play and the Garcia report on corruption -- in a spirited panel discussion Wednesday at the Leaders Sports Business Summit in London.
Rummenigge said European clubs “are ready to discuss” plans to move the World Cup to winter to beat the Qatari heat on "one condition, which has to be that there is no damage to club football." Rummenigge: "The bill, in the end, can’t be paid by the clubs, and we are not ready to pay such a bill."
The possibility of a revote on Qatar as a host seems like a non-starter to the panelists. "It’s not really possible because it has already been decided. From the legal point of view, it’s done," Rummenigge said. "If the Garcia report is, let’s say, clean, then it wouldn’t be fair to Qatar to take the World Cup away from them." Gandini pointed out that the move is going to impact more clubs and leagues than just the ones involved in the Cup. He said, "One little piece is that while we are now talking about players and teams who will be playing in the World Cup, what about the vast majority of leagues, clubs and players who are not going to the world cup? What’s going to happen to them?"
IMPACT ON WINTER GAMES: There is also the collateral impact of the 2022 Winter Olympics, which might have to be moved from its usual time slot. Gandini said that should not be an issue, considering it is so far off.
"If you are moving a huge event like the World Cup from its natural time to winter, don’t tell me it isn’t possible to find a solution to move a little bit," he said. "Especially now, when the Winter Olympics is still in the bidding process for 2022. We have two candidates … and nothing is set. So I think with wisdom and debate it is possible to achieve a solution that makes a majority of people happy."
FINANCIAL REGULATIONS: Rummenigge said German football was an early adopter on the concept of FFP, and believes, in the long term, it is another thing that will make people happy. "I believe today, more than yesterday, that it is a good thing for football," he said. "I believe that in an industry where 65% of all clubs are losing money, that it is not a very healthy industry."
Lopez Jimenez echoed that sentiment. "I think financial fair play is going to work," he said. "There are three areas (for financial fair play). One is that the debt between clubs is slowed. Second, to put financial responsibility on the clubs, so that most clubs are not in debt. The third one is how to regulate money coming into the clubs from different ways. This is the most difficult one." Gandini gave examples of where FFP was already working, including that fewer clubs are in arrears on their debts. He said unpaid bills for Italian clubs has "fallen from $47 million to $8 million."
