World Cup storm warning

The next World Cup in 2002 may cause fixture confusion for years as organisers have admitted that they want to move the tournament out of the traditional Asian rainy season.

The World Cup takes place in June and July, as it did this summer, and during the recent tournament in France South Korea and Japan experienced heavy monsoon conditions that would make play in the Finals extremely unlikely to go ahead.

The co-hosts of the next World Cup want to move it into August and September in 2002 cutting right across the European league seasons. Leagues across Europe and the UEFA club competitions will need major rescheduling if FIFA give the green light for the move. The weather in the tropics was not apparently considered when the World Cup Finals were awarded for the first time to two Asian countries although heavy rainfall and storms are predictable in the Pacific rim in June and July.

The organisers fear chaos if they attempt to stage the Finals in the tropical rainstorms and may be given the option to move by FIFA who regard the World Cup Finals as the premier tournament in the world and are willing to give it precedence over every other competition. A compromise could be found by abandoning traditional pre-season by moving the World Cup into July and August training in Europe but that would make injuries more likely.

Leagues in Europe face the prospect of a lengthy delay to the 2002-3 season or compensating by juggling fixtures from the end of the coming season to make up for the lost time. Revenues from gate receipts and advertising could be hurt as some league seasons may be curtailed. Some 700 World Cup qualifying matches, starting in the summer of 2000, will need to be fitted in as well around the world.