Report: 2022 Winter Olympics dates may have to move to make room for World Cup

Published Oct. 8, 2014 1:45 p.m. ET

foxsports

As if the 2022 Winter Olympics didn't have enough problems, what with candidates dropping like flies and leaving just Beijing and Almaty, Kazakhstan, as potential host cities. Now a soccer executive is saying the Winter Games may have to move its traditional January date to February so as to not conflict with the World Cup in Qatar.

European Club Association of Europe vice chairman and director of sport at AC Milan Umberto Gandini told delegates at a Leaders in Sport summit on Wednesday that the World Cup should take precedence over the 2022 Winter Games.

"Not to be controversial, but the World Cup is one of the major events in the sports landscape with the Summer Olympics," Gandini said via Reuters.

"But the Winter Olympics, with all due respect, are not up there."

According to the Reuters article, FIFA awarded Qatar the 2022 World Cup in 2010 and it was generally agreed that the soccer matches would not be played in the brutal heat of the Arabian summer.

"When you have such a huge event like the World Cup, and you have to move it from its summer window, don't tell me it's not possible to find a solution and move the Winter Olympics a bit so they don't clash -- especially now where the Winter Olympics are still under the bidding process and there are only two candidates," Gandini said.

A spokesperson for the International Olympic Committee relayed via Reuters Wednesday that FIFA president Sepp Blatter (also an IOC member) assured that there would be no conflict between Winter Olympics and World Cup come 2022.

"It is in the interest of both organizations that there is no clash between our calendars, and we have received assurances from President Blatter that this will not be the case," IOC spokesman Mark Adams said.

Winter Olympics may have to move for 2022 World Cup - ECA

BY MIKE COLLETT

LONDON Wed Oct 8, 2014 11:12am EDT