Holding another winter World Cup is unacceptable without major changes to how the tournament is arranged, world players’ union Fifpro has said.The union has published a report on how the Qatar World Cup, held in November and December, affected player workload.Post-tournament recovery time was cut from 37 days to eight to reduce disruption to Europe’s club calendar.##NAJAVA_MECA_7085945##A winter World Cup “should not be a viable option for anybody”, said Fifpro general secretary Jonas Baer-Hoffmann.A future World Cup could be staged in December, as Saudi Arabia is considering a bid to be the 2030 host, while Portugal and Spain could also hold a winter tournament.##EDITORS_CHOICE##Fifa president Gianni Infantino said after the finals in Qatar that the winter scheduling had led to better matches.”Playing in November and December has had an impact,” he said. He added that “we have seen it with the quality of the games” when compared with a summer World Cup played “at the end of an exhausting season” for the players.Newcastle’s Wilson blames cosmic karma for Liverpool’s magic resurrection following his criticismBut Baer-Hoffmann said: “Repeating what we had this time is clearly not acceptable.”Because the tournament was held in the middle of the European club season, preparation time for Qatar 2022 was also cut from the usual 31 days to seven.”If you want to pursue a winter World Cup again, you need to get into conversations with the leagues to completely change their schedules to provide appropriate training and recovery time,” Baer-Hoffmann added.”That would mean a two or two-and-a-half month break from competition. I find it unlikely they would agree to that.”
