Get ready for a seismic shift in world football

THE Qatar World Cup could turn the global game on its head – and change the football calendar for good.

That’s the view of Simon Chadwick, director of the Eurasian Sports Centre at Emlyon Business School, and a man who knows the world of Middle East football inside out having spent so much time in Qatar in the past.

The 2022 tournament will be the first to be held in the region.

And despite the negative headlines that have dogged the tournament since it was awarded to Qatar in 2010, Chadwick believes that if football is to be a truly global game then it’s only fair that the World Cup moves into new territories.

He also thinks the competition is a reflection of continual shift in football power.

“There are a lot of elements at play here but, generally, Qataris are football fans,” he said.

“If you go back 15 years, most of us didn’t know where Qatar was. The Arab world was the last part of the world that had never staged a World Cup.

“The World Cup will eventually go to China and if it goes there in the summertime then you’ll also be looking at a potential change to when the tournament is scheduled.

“I can foresee a World Cup in China being hosted in September or October. We’re going to have this issue again.

“It’s a reflection of a changing world. In football-terms, Europe and South America aren’t in charge any more. You’ve got Chinese money

‘The World Cup will eventually go to China’

flooding in, you’ve got interest from India, from Russia – and that’s going to challenge all these issues around the time of year that tournaments are staged, the time of day that games are played and so on.”

Handing the World Cup to Qatar in the first place pretty much turned traditional football thinking on its head.

And after a first World Cup in the northern hemisphere winter, we could be about to witness a fundamental transformation of the global calendar.

“What seems to have happened is that some kind of financial settlement seems to have been agreed between FIFA and governing bodies,” added Chadwick.

“That’s significant for two reasons.

“One is it shows that with the right money and with the intention being good, settlements can be reached.

“You have to keep in your mind that six or seven of FIFA partners are Chinese and more will come.

“You’ve got Qatar Airways as a FIFA sponsor too, so reaching the settlement that they did, that money is coming from Qatar, China and other such places.

“What we’re in the midst of here is a real shift – the world is changing, and football is changing too.

“Is that a bad thing? I don’t think it is because the principles of equality and equal representation are really important.”