It ain't over 'til it's over: FIFA's ruling Executive Committee is not expected to rubber stamp its Task Force's recommendation until next month and the big European clubs employ so many of the world's top players these days that their bargaining power should not be underestimated.

Nevertheless, let us accept for now that this week's developments make it likely that for the first time in 92 years a FIFA World Cup will be staged in 2022 in the months of November and December. Who look to be the winners and losers?

Winners:

1) The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and winter sports bodies.

It would have been a disaster for snow and ice sports, struggling like just about everything else to hold their own in the face of the football colossus, had FIFA decided to shrug off a clash with the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics and stage its flagship tournament in January and February.

As it is, the recommendation, as a colleague observed, leaves the IOC looking a more potent and influential force than the big European football clubs and leagues, who have been pushing for May.

I wonder if the winter sports world might not have been helped out by a propitious set of circumstances embracing the FIFA Presidential election campaign, the likelihood that the 2022 Games will go to one of the planet's most powerful countries and the recent decisions by a couple of FIFA sponsors not to renew their partnerships with the governing body for another World Cup cycle.

International Ski Federation President Gian Franco Kasper is among those to have already expressed satisfaction at the proposal ©Getty Images



Did China have a quiet word? Or Coca-Cola and Visa, two of the five current FIFA partners, who are also IOC TOP sponsors? Or Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, a key Olympic power broker who also has a voice in football as honorary life President of the Football Association of Kuwait, which publicly backed FIFA task force chair Shaikh Salman when he won the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Presidency in 2013?

I have no idea; but they would be a powerful collection of advocates if they did.

A January/February World Cup might have been marginally more palatable to European clubs than November/December, as the concept of a midwinter break in January is familiar in some countries.

For FIFA, it might have meant collecting the final tranche of monies for the 2019-2022 cycle a few months early, rather than a few months late.

The task force's decision should also go down well with other prominent start-of-year sports events, such as tennis' Australian Open.

2) Airlines

December is a peak time anyway, with family members criss-crossing the globe to spend the holiday period with loved ones.

Now FIFA has loaded more demand onto the system.

All else being equal, I would expect the last quarter of 2022 to be an extremely good one for many leading carriers.

3) The Asian Football Confederation

Clearly, a Middle East World Cup should be a good thing for the AFC.

However, if the task force gets its way, the region may end up with three FIFA tournaments, not just one.

Normally, the Confederations Cup acts as a test event for the World Cup, being staged by the same host-nation a year earlier.

The Confederations Cup, last won by Brazil in 2013, is the traditional test event of sorts for the World Cup but could now be moved out of Qatar ©Getty Images



However, that would require disrupting another European season and would also risk a clash with the 2021 FIFA Club World Cup.

To get around this, the task force was said to be "exploring the option" of staging the 2021 Confederations Cup during its traditional June/July slot "in another AFC country".

Another FIFA competition - "potentially the FIFA Club World Cup" - could then be "relocated to Qatar" to serve as the test event.

Others might wonder if there was any point staging a 2021 Confederations Cup if it did not act as a World Cup test event.

4) England. Maybe.

I am not sure if I buy it, but there is a "lamb in spring, lion in winter" theory which holds that the England team plays much better in the European winter, before players become too tired to perform at their best.

In the past, World Cups have always fallen after the end of the exhausting English season, helping to explain, if you subscribe to the theory, why England World Cup teams have so often disappointed.

If you believe this, you may see a November/December World Cup as a great chance for England, for once, to fulfil its potential.

Hmm, wouldn't that be nice? Meanwhile, I reckon Qatar 2022 may now prove a godsend for manufacturers of World Cup-themed advent calendars.

Losers:

1) FIFA

This week's developments have underlined once again the foolishness of awarding the World Cup to Qatar without nailing down when the competition would be played,

The governing body may well have to pay through the nose for this incompetence.

Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and the European Club Association have called for compensation due to the anticipated disruption to European seasons ©Getty Images



European Club Association (ECA) chairman - and twice World Cup runner-up - Karl-Heinz Rummenigge's message on Tuesday was crystal clear.

European clubs and leagues could not, he said, be expected to bear the costs for the World Cup's rescheduling.

"We expect the clubs to be compensated for the damage that a final decision would cause."

2) European retailers

Buoyant Christmas sales are, of course, vital to the health of the High Street.

Now, it seems, retailers are going to have to compete at peak Christmas shopping time with one of the world's most compelling sporting spectacles.

3) Guinea

The West African nation of Guinea was recently awarded hosting rights for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, the continent's flagship international football event.

Based on the current timing of this biennial tournament, you might normally expect this to get under way in January 2023.

Given that this would now be less than a month after the 2022 World Cup final, it is surely unthinkable that this timing would hold.

The country may therefore end up holding it at a different time to the period it might have anticipated.

4) European summer sports

If the 2022-23 European football season is now to be interrupted by an approximately seven-week hiatus, that means, presumably, that it will have to start earlier than usual and end later.

This means that events which would normally take place in league football's close season are likely to find themselves competing for attention with Manchester United, Barcelona and the like.

I would be particularly concerned if I were planning a non-football event in June 2023, since this might now coincide with the exciting culmination of the European club football season.

5) Simon Cowell. Maybe.

Popular entertainment shows such as Strictly Come Dancing and the X Factor have come to dominate the pre-Christmas television schedules.

Simon Cowell's X Factor could be one event affected by a November and December World Cup ©Wikipedia




Their slow build to a mid-to-late-December climax may now coincide with the business end of a sports tournament with awesome pulling power.

Imagine if an England World Cup victory led to copies of the official World Cup single by James Corden or Skinner and Baddiel flying off the shelves and depriving the X Factor winner of her traditional Christmas Number One.

Doesn't really bear thinking about, does it?

David Owen worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing, including covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2010 World Cup and London 2012. Owen's Twitter feed can be accessed here.