[drewks]

Drewks,

Whilst Qatar 'may' have paid large sums of money, I cannot agree with you that it is their fault.  As I say, they bid for a summer world cup and have been preparing for a summer world cup.  Many of my friends work for the Qatar World Cup committee and have informed me this is the case.  

It is not Qatar's fault if FIFA make the (sensible) decision to move this to a winter world cup.  It benefits everyone involved apart from the European leagues.

It is FIFA's fault that Qatar won the bid.  FIFA have changed the criteria of the bid and all bidding nations should file lawsuits against FIFA.  I believe Australia may be in the process of doing this?

Yep, can see the points you're making Danny, and I agree with them. The one I'm trying to make is that, assuming that the bid was corrupt and bribes DID occur, then Qatar are to blame for this as much as FIFA. 

[Baggievicar]

While the process of awarding the World Cup to Qatar might be open to question, if we accept the situation, then there are some interesting consequences of it.

Imagine some of the top 6 teams losing a lot of their stars for 4 - 6 weeks, it certainly would be a bit of a leveller in the Premiership and should prove for a more interesting season in terms of league positions as the lower clubs with fewer international players would remain pretty much intact while the big clubs could see their first teams decimated.  OK the reserves of some of the bigger clubs should still be able to field a team as good as most clubs first teams but they will not be as used to playing first team football together.

Another interesting thing is that I have a feeling that the next AFCON is meant to be straight after Christmas, with Nov-Dec having been World Cup - are teams going to let players go? I can see a lot of the top teams deciding that their players are injured for the World Cup anyway - club trumps country now, so by 2022 it will presumably be worse.

[pieandabovril]

Liked this one.

The Qatar World Cup is to be held in November/December,or if you support England,November!