Winter sports officials tell World Cup to stay away

As if FIFA didn’t have enough enemies already, now a coalition of winter sports federations is threatening to gang up on the controversial governing body for soccer.

The problem is, FIFA awarded the 2022 World Cup to the country of Qatar. When officials realized that the Persian Gulf gets hot in the summer -- really hot -- they began talking about moving the event to wintertime.

The International Olympic Committee immediately voiced its concern about the prospect of staging the world’s two biggest sporting events at the same time. FIFA said it would consider a November date.

Now, officials for skiing, hockey and other winter sports worry that soccer might steal the spotlight from their pre-Olympic seasons.

“For sure, we have to put up the flag and say, ‘Hey guys, be careful.’” Rene Fasel, an IOC executive board member and president of ice hockey’s governing body, told the Associated Press.

At a fall meeting in Switzerland last weekend, the international skiing federation said it will ask the other winter federations to sign a resolution against shifting the World Cup.

“I honestly and privately just don’t believe that anybody within FIFA cares about us,” ski official Gian-Franco Kasper recently said. “They’re the gods of the world -- at least that’s what they think.”

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