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 "I personally think that in the end the 2022 World Cup will not
take place in Qatar," the German told Sport Bild on Monday.
"Medics say that they cannot accept responsibility with a World Cup
taking place under these conditions," the former German football
(DFB) chief, who is now a member of the world soccer's governing
body FIFA that awarded the tournament to Qatar in 2010.
Although wealthy Qatar has insisted that a summer World Cup is
viable thanks to cooling technologies it is developing for stadiums,
training areas and fan zones, there is still widespread concern over
the health of the players and visiting supporters.
"They may be able to cool the stadiums but a World Cup does not take
place only there," Zwanziger said.
"Fans from around the world will be coming and traveling in this
heat and the first life-threatening case will trigger an
investigation by a state prosecutor.
"That is not something that FIFA Exco members want to answer for."
FIFA officials, contacted by Reuters, said Zwanziger was not giving
the view of the all powerful Executive Committee.
"He is expressing a personal opinion and he explicitly says so,"
FIFA spokeswoman Delia Fischer said. "We will not comment on a
personal opinion."
FIFA President Sepp Blatter said in May that awarding the World Cup
to Qatar was a 'mistake' and the tournament would probably have to
be held in the European winter.
"Of course, it was a mistake. You know, one comes across a lot of
mistakes in life," he told Swiss television station RTS in an
interview at the time.
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"The Qatar technical report indicated clearly that it is too hot in
summer, but the executive committee with quite a big majority
decided all the same that the tournament would be in Qatar," he
added.
FIFA is now looking to shift the tournament to a European winter
date to avoid the scorching summer where temperatures routinely rise
over 40 Celsius.
Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president Sheikh Salman Bin
Ebrahim Al Khalifa chaired a meeting to discuss the matter earlier
this month with the options of January/February 2022 and
November/December 2022 offered as alternatives to June/July.
However, talk of a potential change away from the usual dates has
resulted in plenty of opposition from domestic leagues around the
world, worried the schedule switch would severely disrupt them.
Both FIFA and Qatar World Cup organizers have also been fending off
questions of corruption ever since they were awarded the tournament
back in 2010, while Qatar has also been criticized for the
conditions provided for migrant workers' in the tiny Gulf state.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann. Editing by Patrick Johnston)
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