From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood

h/t Ian Magness

Clown of the Week award goes to Ben Rumsby:

Calendar may need to be ripped up for major rescheduling of some of world’s biggest tournaments

A World Cup final played on Easter Sunday or Hallowe’en. A summer Olympics staged in the autumn, winter or spring. A World Athletics Championships spanning several months of the year.

If that reads like a shortlist of ideas for a Telegraph Sport April Fools’ Day story then it is probably because, until recently, it might easily have been dismissed as one.

Now, however, those ideas are genuinely being discussed as part of plans to rip up the international calendar and revolutionise when sport’s biggest events take place.

And it is all thanks to one burning issue: climate.

If you want a good laugh, the full story is here.

It’s the same load of old nonsense we get every year, usually from the BBC. It is sad though to see the Telegraph embarrass itself in this way.

If it is going to be too hot to hold the Olympics in the summer, why have they been held in hot locations such as Athens, Atlanta, Barcelona and Los Angeles in recent years. Surely Athens in the middle of August would be far too hot?

As for the World Cup, they are always traditionally held in summer, because it is the offseason for most countries. The Qatar event, held in winter a few years ago, created huge disturbance to domestic leagues. The reality is that several World Cups have been held in weather that was far too hot, including Mexico in 1970 and Italy in 1990 – it is a case of “follow the money”.

It is hardly beyond the wit of man to choose venues, such as England, where summer temperatures are ideal.

Silly Mr Rumsby even writes:

“At the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan, World Rugby was forced to cancel England’s pool match with France and New Zealand’s against Italy as a result of Typhoon Hagibis”

Well, yes, Mr Rumsby. They often have typhoons in Japan! Did not you know?

He reports about concerns regarding heat stress in next summer’s World Cup in the US:

“Infantino’s comments about moving the World Cup to March or October came barely a week after Victor Montagliani, the Fifa vice-president, said that matches at next summer’s tournament could kick off later than they might have in order to avoid the hottest part of the day.

That, in turn, followed the publication of a study that found 10 of the 16 venues in the United States, Canada and Mexico were at very high risk of extreme heat stress conditions.”

The final will be held in New York, where peak temperatures used to be much higher in the past. In most years, you can expect to experience temperatures close to or over 100C. It is not “climate change”, Mr Rumsby, it is weather.