Iain Holloway brands winter World Cup proposal 'crazy'

FIFA president Sepp Blatter's proposal to play the 2022 World Cup in Qatar during January has provoked a mixed reaction from Premier League managers.

Wolves manager Mick McCarthy branded it "nonsense" and Blackpool boss Ian Holloway called the plan "crazy", but Chelsea's Carlo Ancelotti and West Ham's Avram Grant are in favour of the change.

Qatar has temperatures reaching 50 degrees C in June/July but changing the date of the World Cup would have major implications for domestic competitions in Britain and Europe.

McCarthy said: "I think it's stupid and I think the more airtime he (Blatter] gets, he makes it worse for himself. Taking the World Cup around the globe is one thing, but taking it to a place that's 50 degrees in the summer, or whatever it is, is nonsense. Then saying 'we'll all shut our leagues and play in the winter' is even more nonsense."

Holloway was also bitterly opposed, saying: "It's gone crazy - I think the world has gone completely on its head.

"What happens to our football and everybody else's that would be playing through it? Do we just stop for a while? Genius, absolutely magnificent."

Ancelotti said his experience of the intense heat in USA '94 had persuaded him of the merits of the plan. He added: "It's impossible to play 50 degrees. I had that experience in the USA in 1994 and it's impossible to play at 12 o'clock and 40 degrees on the pitch."