(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Football governing body FIFA says it will not compensate clubs and leagues unhappy about plans to play the 2022 Qatar World Cup in November and December.
"There will be no compensation," said FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke while addressing a press conference here yesterday, after a Qatar 2022 Organising Committee board meeting.
A FIFA task force on Tuesday made a provisional recommendation that the 2022 tournament should be played in late November to December instead of the traditional June-July period, which will be ratified by FIFA next month.
"It's not perfect, we know that - but why are we talking about compensation? It's happening once we're not destroying football," he added.
"There are seven years to reorganise," added Valcke.
On Tuesday, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge Chairman of the European Clubs' Association (ECA) chairman said the clubs would demand financial settlements for the disruption.
The move to have a November-December World Cup will force some of the major leagues to be rescheduled. Average temperatures in Qatar are around 25 degrees Celsius towards the end of the year, roughly 15 degrees lower than the traditional World Cup months.
Valcke, however, said FIFA owed no apology for the scheduling of the World Cup, which will force a number of leagues to change their local league schedules.
"Why should we apologise to the clubs? We have had an agreement with the clubs that they are part of the beneficiaries. It was $40m in 2010 and $70m in 2014.
"We are bringing all our people to enjoy the sporting and financial results of the World Cup.
"I definitely don't feel I have to apologise for the decision made yesterday to confirm that the World Cup will not be played in the summer."
FIFA's Executive Committee will meet in Zurich next month to ratify the taskforce's recommendation of the November-December World Cup and also the date of the final. English Premier League (EPL) Chief Executive Richard Scudamore says the final which will be close to Christmas will cause havoc with the traditional festive club programme and will campaign for an earlier final date ahead of the decision by FIFA's Executive Committee on March 20.
But Valcke said most of the confederations, including the European governing body UEFA want December 23 as the date for the Qatar 2022 World Cup final - but that no decision has been made, although December 18 is also a possibility.
"Most confederations say they want the World Cup to end on the 23rd of December," the official added. Valcke also said the duration of the 2022 competition would be reduced from 32 to 28 days, as a "concession" to leagues and the clubs.
Valcke also appeared to confirm the deal to extend the USA TV rights deal with Fox to include the 2026 World Cup had been done to avert the threat of any legal action over its 2022 deal.
"We have done what we had to do in order to protect FIFA and the organisation of the World Cup," he said.
Meanwhile, the 2021 FIFA Confederations Cup € the traditional World Cup rehearsal - will not be held in Qatar, Valcke added.
The tournament is often described as a World Cup warm-up given that allows the host nation to fine tune its facilities and conduct a test run some 12 months before the main tournament.
Valcke said the tournament, which pits the World Cup holders against the hosts and champions of FIFA's six confederations, will be played "in an Asian country," which has still to be determined and during the traditional June-July window.
Qatar would hold another FIFA competition, which is yet to be decided, which will serve as the operational test event for Qatar in November-December 2021, a year before the World Cup.
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