World Cup 2022 hosts Qatar have already administered more than 4.6 million vaccines so far, roughly 82 per cent of their population. And the Gulf nation are stubborn in their intent for the corona-virus preventive measures to be taken seriously and respected fully during the upcoming tournament.According to The Athletic, the tournament hosts have already revealed that anyone attending the tournament next November will have to be double-vaccinated.However, there are some concerns Qatar’s stance could rob the tournament of its stars as it is known that professional players’ views on taking the vaccine are mixed.There are players still publicly resisting the Covid-19 vaccine – including Switzerland and Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka.James goes to Qatar, putting an end to his ambitions as a serious playerManchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer admitted last month not all of the players have been double-jabbed.’I have encouraged them to take the vaccination but you cannot force anyone to do that.’, keeping in mind United goalkeeper Dean Henderson has been struggling with long Covid.The Athletic claim a number of options are being considered, one of them being for uninoculated players to report negative tests every three days.Newcastle manager Steve Bruce has admitted that ‘a lot’ of his players have not been vaccinated – despite their goalkeeper Karl Darlow being hospitalised with the virus. Magpies manager cited ‘conspiracy theories’ as a reason why so many are refusing to comply.Meanwhile, Qatar have also had to have talks about the logistics around Covid ahead of the Arab Cup, which starts on November 30 and will be used as test event for next year’s World Cup.Harambee Stars new coach has his work cut out – This should be Kenya’s Best 11For that tournament, fans will need to be fully vaccinated to attend while players on the other hand will not.Another issue that needs to be tackled by international football institutions is the proposal to hold the World Cup every two years instead of four.FIFA has invited football’s domestic governing bodies to an online summit on September 30 to discuss the subject.The topic is set to be discussed with FIFA’s member associations as part of plans to reform the international calendar.”There is a broad consensus within the game that the international match calendar should be reformed and improved,” FIFA said in a statement Monday.”Following invitations to stakeholders, including all confederations, at the beginning of September, discussions are being organised in the coming weeks.Mwendwa explains two months contract issued to new Harambee Stars coach”FIFA also invited its member associations to a first online summit on 30 September 2021. This is one of several opportunities to establish a constructive and open debate, at a global and regional level, over the coming months.”The proposal for a biennial World Cup was revived in March by former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, now head of global football development at FIFA.The idea would be to have an international tournament each year from 2025-2026, alternating World Cups and continental tournaments like the European Championship and Copa America.##EDITORS_CHOICE##UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin is fiercely opposed to the proposal and threatened that European nations would boycott a biennial World Cup.South American confederation CONMEBOL said the project had “no sporting justification”.FIFA president Gianni Infantino has promised decisions on staging a World Cup every two years would be made by the end of the year.Last week FIFA published an online poll that claimed a majority of football fans support the idea of a “more frequent” World Cup.The results of the survey came in stark contrast to the opposition of numerous national supporters groups worldwide.© Agence France-Presse
