The reality of the summer heat in Qatar has fully dawned on FIFA. A top official of soccer’s world governing body said Monday that it was considering turning the 2022 World Cup into a late autumn or winter event that would start in January or November of that year. That change might benefit players and fans who would avoid triple-digit temperatures outside air-conditioned stadiums.
But it is not what Fox and Telemundo bought when they agreed to pay a combined $1 billion for the rights to carry the 2018 and 2022 World Cups in Russia and Qatar.
World Cups usually start in June and end in July, a big summer platform with fewer major sports competing with the tournament than earlier or later in the year. In its traditional slot this past June, a record average of nearly 4.6 million viewers watched the World Cup from Brazil on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, up 39 percent from 2010.
If FIFA moved the World Cup to the fourth quarter of the year, it would compete for advertiser dollars with the World Series, the N.F.L., college football and college basketball. If it were staged from January to February, it would vie for advertisers with the Super Bowl, postseason college football and, in 2022, the Winter Olympics.
Fox’s fall and winter portfolio includes the N.F.L. and M.L.B. Its cable sibling, Fox Sports 1, is loaded with college football and college basketball.
Still, a World Cup move from June is not all negative for Fox, in part because more people are watching television in the winter. The event has become formidable, a monthlong fútbol festival that can hold its own among United States audiences at any time of year.
And the nine-hour time difference between Qatar and the Eastern time zone means that Fox and Fox Sports 1 would not have to pre-empt much of their existing sports programming to schedule the World Cup. Games would be shown in the morning and, at the latest, early afternoon. An 8 p.m. start time in Qatar would let Fox show a game in November that would lead into its Sunday N.F.L. schedule.
“So they get to promote their prime-time schedule in a high-gloss sports event but don’t lose their prime-time programs,” said Neal Pilson, an industry consultant.
An earlier or later-than-usual World Cup in the United States has not provoked the sort of outcry that it has in Europe. Leagues there are apoplectic, arguing that shifting the World Cup from June and July would disrupt their seasons, diminish their revenue and roil the UEFA Champions League. World Cup teams require three to four weeks of preparation in advance and two weeks of post-tournament rest — chewing up a significant stretch of time.
Moving the World Cup would create what would appear to be an unprecedented situation. Major events like the World Cup are sports tent poles. They are played at about the same time each year. The Winter Olympics are not played in May. The Super Bowl has moved to early February from its original mid-January perch — but not to July. The World Series has bled into November but always starts in October.
So if Fox, especially, and Telemundo view the rescheduling of the World Cup as onerous and seek financial relief — or even a release from their deals — would FIFA accommodate them?
“It’s extremely possible that FIFA says, ‘Here is your agreement, take it or leave it,’ ” said Ed Desser, a sports consultant and former longtime N.B.A. executive who called a potential shift of the World Cup an “an adverse material change.”
One sports executive who has seen the contract said there were no written provisions that would compel FIFA to offer any refunds or a release. But it has, at least, begun to talk to television partners about the ramifications of the possible change.
“Sepp Blatter will do what he wants to do, as he always has,” said Barry Frank, the executive vice president of IMG Media, referring to the longtime boss of FIFA. “I don’t know who Fox could appeal it to because nobody has any say except one guy — Blatter.” Frank, a veteran sports television dealmaker, suggested that Fox could get out of its deal — but only if ESPN is there to scoop it up.
“My sense is that FIFA wouldn’t let Fox out until they had it done with ESPN,” he added. ESPN and Univision bid unsuccessfully for the World Cup package acquired by Fox and Telemundo.
If, in the end, FIFA does not provide any wiggle room to Fox and Telemundo, the position would differ from contracts to carry the Olympics — at least those once negotiated by Richard W. Pound, a member of the International Olympic Committee who was the organization’s longtime broadcast deal broker. He recalled by telephone that the deals he made allowed for financial relief if the Winter or Summer Games were moved out of agreed-upon time periods. “They would have had to be moved by two or three weeks,” he said.
Fox and Telemundo can surely afford their rights fees, and will, if required, manage whatever upheavals are caused by moving the World Cup from June. But that is not really the point.
FIFA chose Qatar — amid allegations of corruption — knowing about its heat. Now, FIFA is on the cusp of a scheduling change caused by its own desire to stage the World Cup in the desert during summer in the Northern Hemisphere. It should make a deal to satisfy Fox, Telemundo and other global networks aggrieved by changing the World Cup schedule.
And let the networks give any financial compensation to charity.