The 8 stadiums of the Qatar 2022 World Cup 2:09
(CNN Spanish) --
Contrary to tradition, and despite the opposition initially presented by the main European teams, the World Cup in Qatar will be held in November and December, the winter season of the Middle Eastern country, to avoid the hottest months.
However, "winter" is a relative concept.
Qatar won the bid to host soccer's biggest tournament in 2010, more than a decade ago, against rivals Australia, Japan, the United States and Korea.
By then the alerts about the heat on the ground had already sounded.
In fact Harold Mayne-Nicholls, who led the FIFA inspection team that examined all the countries that applied to host the cup, concluded that Qatar was a high-risk option due to its high temperatures.
Despite its evaluation, Qatar was chosen by 14 of the 22 members of the executive committee in the final round of voting.
And he was elected under the premise that he would organize the tournament in June and July, as is usually done.
However, FIFA had to back down and define the tournament to be held in November and December due to health concerns of players and spectators linked to the heat.
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For the same reason, it was decided to concentrate the competition in a shorter period, of 28 days in total.
What about the fans?
The challenge posed by the heat is off the pitches: all World Cup stadiums have efficient cooling systems that will allow a comfortable temperature to be maintained.
Another issue is the street.
5 things you need to know about Qatar 2:01
"In June and July you can't play," Harold Mayne-Nicholls explained to CNN in 2013. "It's not about the players. The players will be fine with the cooling system but what about the fans? There will be 50,000 fans walking three , four, even six blocks or more like South Africa, where I walked 10 blocks".
"You'll be walking around in 40 degree Celsius temperature and it's too much," he said at the time.
Almost 10 years after those statements, the alarms about the increase in temperature and heat waves worldwide have only increased.
The heat has been a cause for alarm in one of the last large-scale sports competitions, the Tokyo Olympics, where the high temperatures were added to the humidity that increased the thermal sensation.
Winter but not cold: Qatar's temperatures
In November, for example, the average maximum can reach 29.5 degrees Celsius in Doha, according to the World Meteorological Organization, while the average minimum is 19.5.
In December temperatures drop: the maximum average reaches 24.1 and the minimum average 15 degrees Celsius, according to the calculation made based on the temperatures of the period 1962-1992.
These figures do not evoke a winter exactly, but they are significantly lower than those of the Qatari summer.
In June, for example, temperatures can climb to 43 degrees Celsius.
When and where does the 2022 Qatar World Cup start?
dates and calendar
The main European clubs had lobbied FIFA so that the months of the World Cup would not be moved and their season interrupted.
Opposition from the big clubs
December is traditionally a hectic month for the Premier League.
And it is not the only one: the Spanish League, the German Bundesliga, the Italian Serie A and the French Ligue 1 also take their winter breaks well into the last month of the year.
Those European winter months also see the group stage of the continent's main club competition, the Champions League.
But finding some dates that would work did not seem easy: in January and February, for example, it could not be done because in that case it would compete with the Beijing Winter Olympics.
With information from CNN's Tom McGowan and James Masters.
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