Fifa hints at later start for World Cup to help players

A LATER start to the next World Cup to allow top players to have a longer rest after sapping club seasons will be one of the key issues for a Fifa taskforce looking at improving future tournaments, it was reported last night.

The news comes just 24 hours after the Scottish Premier League announced, by contrast, that it will seriously examine proposals to start the league season earlier to avoid fixture backlogs created by extreme weather in the winter.

Starting the 2014 finals in Brazil in July rather than mid-June would allow players to be fresher for the tournament, a senior source at world football's governing body said. Fifa president Sepp Blatter has already announced plans for his taskforce to look at ways of making the tournament more attractive.

Blatter's decision came after several high-profile players, including Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo and Didier Drogba, produced mediocre performances at the World Cup in South Africa this year. Fifa was also disappointed by the cagey tactics by teams in the first round of matches which made for several dull games.

Blatter said he wanted solutions to be introduced in time for the next World Cup in Brazil.

Fifa had already introduced a cut off date for leagues to end their seasons earlier in a World Cup year, but this seemed to make little difference to the conditioning of some leading players at the 2010 finals.

The World Cup usually starts just weeks after the end of league season in Europe. Blatter suggested in October fear of losing in the opening round of the World Cup made for too many unexciting games in the first fortnight of the tournament.

"Nobody really wants to lose one of these (first round] matches. We had five or six draws in South Africa, so let's see how we can make football more attractive," he said after a Fifa executive committee meeting.

He had previously suggested one solution might be to abolish extra-time, with drawn matches in the knockout stages going straight to penalties.

Meanwhile, Blatter - who visited Oman in the Gulf yesterday - has said that Qatar's neighbouring countries could host games at the 2022 World Cup.

Qatar was designated the 2022 World Cup last week, despite fears the intense heat poses a serious health risk if the tournament is played in summer.

In an interview with sports daily L'Equipe yesterday, Blatter said Australia's 2022 World Cup bid proposed some matches could be held in New Zealand, and Qatar could likewise have neighbouring countries host games. He didn't say which countries.

"Australia, in its candidacy bid, proposed to give several matches to New Zealand," Blatter told L'Equipe. "I think it could be the same in Qatar and that some matches could take place in nearby countries."

Fifa was right to award Qatar the World Cup, Blatter reiterated, because football needs to expand from its traditional strongholds."With Qatar, we are opening football to a new world and a new culture," Blatter said. "The Arab world, which has tried several times - with Morocco or Egypt for example - to host the World Cup, could legitimately lay claim to hosting this."

Qatar has huge financial means to ensure a state-of-the-art cooling system in stadiums and training grounds to combat desert heat. Ruled by the Al Thani family, the tiny Gulf nation has committed $42.9 billion for infrastructure upgrades.