A winter World Cup in Qatar "may not require cooling systems to lower temperatures in the stadiums as proposed in the bid for a summer tournament," said an exec from the Gulf state's 2022 organizing committee, according to Amena Bakr of REUTERS. One of the biggest challenges of hosting the tournament in the summer months, when temperatures at times exceed 40 degrees Celsius, was "cooling down the stadiums" but, with the shift to the winter, the organizing committee is "reassessing the situation." Dario Cadavid, technical assurance and integration manager at Qatar’s 2022 Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, said, "The temperatures are lower in the winter so the demand for cooling will be lower. ... Whether it is used at the finals or not, research on cooling technologies is continuing because Qatar wants the 2022 stadiums to be available for local league games all year." Cadavid "described this aspect of the bid as the 'legacy' element." FIFA also decided to "cut the length of the 2022 tournament from 32 to 28 days," meaning "more games will be played per day and a country of Qatar's size might thus need fewer stadiums." Cadavid: "The number of stadiums planned for the finals has not been announced but the revolutionary cooling system will be installed when each ground is constructed" (REUTERS, 3/30).
