Qatar

The European Club Association (ECA) has hit back at claims by Fifa that it is closing in on a decision to reschedule Qatar’s 2022 World Cup to become a winter tournament.

Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC ) and Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) president Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah has ruled out shifting the 2022 winter Olympics to accommodate the Fifa World Cup as plans emerged for two new stadiums for Qatar’s football showpiece.

Uefa president Michel Platini has confirmed that football’s European governing body is prepared to shift the Champions League club competition’s semi-finals and final to June in 2022 if the Fifa World Cup of the same year in Qatar is scheduled to take place in the winter.

Fifa has said that it remains committed to alternative dates of January/February or November/December 2022 for the shifting of Qatar’s World Cup, leaving the prospect of the event clashing with the winter Olympic Games still in play.

The European Club Association (ECA), the independent representative body for European football clubs, will present a proposal to a Fifa task force on Monday regarding the potential staging of Qatar’s 2022 World Cup in an April-May window.

IPC Athletics, the international organisation for para-athletics, has shifted the 2015 IPC Athletics Marathon World Championships from Doha, Qatar to London, UK.

Harold Mayne-Nicholls, a potential candidate for the presidency of Fifa, has put forward a proposal for games at the 2022 World Cup national team tournament in Qatar to take place at night in order to avoid the Middle Eastern state’s extreme summer daytime heat.

Lega Serie A, the governing body of the top division of Italian football, has announced that Qatar will host its 2014 Supercoppa Italiana competition.

Leaders, in partnership with the Aspire Academy in Doha, has launched the Leaders Under 40 Awards, a global search for the best talent in the business of sport.

The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, has launched a bullish defence of his country’s preparations to host the 2022 Fifa World Cup.

The Qatar Athletics Federation (QAF) and Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) have unveiled plans for an innovative ‘Athletics City’ as part of Doha’s bid for the International Association of Athletics Federations’ 2019 IAAF World Championships.

Organisers of football’s 2022 Fifa World Cup in Qatar have responded to the latest doubts raised by Fifa executive committee member Theo Zwanziger by insisting that it is a case of “when, not if” the Middle Eastern state hosts the tournament.

Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), has promised to “safeguard” the interests of Scottish athletes ahead of the 2016 summer Olympic Games should the country vote in favour of independence.

Fifa has put forward January/February 2022 and November/December 2022 as alternative dates for Qatar’s staging of its World Cup, with the former option raising the prospect that the national football team tournament could yet clash with the winter Olympic Games.

Football’s global governing body Fifa will stage talks with the sport’s international stakeholders on Monday in a further step towards securing dates for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

The Qatari government has approved some measures to improve conditions for foreign workers following widespread criticism of the Gulf state’s treatment of some of those working in construction ahead of the 2022 Fifa World Cup.