In Qatar, "the weather generates discussion," according to Ian Hawkey of the SUNDAY TIMES. Early January "is mild and occasionally drizzly." In June and July "the place bakes." A number of grandees of European club football "have been discovering these conditions first-hand, which will help them in their lobbying during the coming months as specific dates for the 2022 World Cup" are eventually resolved. Clubs "who once despaired at the decision to grant the event to a country with soaring summer temperatures and then protested at the idea that the club season calendar might have to be tailored to insert that World Cup into a winter, autumn or spring month have now come round to the idea." Having persuaded FIFA to take the World Cup to an unlikely and climatically unsuitable venue, Qatar now has a range of important allies in elite club football, FIFA’s "most powerful antagonist, and the lobby group that had been most opposed to the rescheduling of the 2022 World Cup to a more appropriate time of year." Winter "in Qatar?" The idea "now has a long list of endorsers" (SUNDAY TIMES, 1/5).
