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Capello joins call for 2022 Qatar World Cup to be in winter

Wednesday 29 December 2010 01:00 GMT
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Fabio Capello the England manager, has supported calls to play the 2022 World Cup during the winter, fearing that Qatar’s ferocious heat could force players to spend weeks couped up in hotels if the tournament is held in summer as scheduled.

Capello said that building air-conditioned stadiums for the event would not be enough. “It will not be easy for the players to stay all day in the hotel, you can’t run around the hotel,” he said.

“It’s a big problem, not only for the training, you have to spend the time, all the day in the hotel, you can’t go around to relax, to do something different.

“When you stay together for a long time you need to relax to do something different, not only training or playing. That’s why I think it would be a good idea to play in January or February.”

The Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, has said he would not object to a January-February World Cup and the Uefa president Michel Platini is also sympathetic to the idea, although Europe’s major leagues, such as the Premier League, are unlikely to support any such move.

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