The 2022 World Cup in Qatar is set to go ahead in the winter with Europe's leading clubs expected to vote in favor of the decision.
The European Clubs' Association (ECA), which meets in Geneva Tuesday, admits a switch to the winter in Qatar, owing to the weather is pretty much inevitable, but the vote will be made only on the condition that it is a one-off and future World Cups will be held as usual in the summer.
FIFA will make a decision on the issue early next month, with president Sepp Blatter all in favor of holding the mega tournament in the winter.
The English Premier League, though, is vehemently opposed to the decision, but with Football Association chief Greg Dyke in favor of moving the 2022 World Cup to winter, the odds are seriously stacked against the Premier League.
"We have many individual opinions and league opinions, we do not have any ECA position yet as we will discuss this at the general assembly," ECA senior vice-president Umberto Gandini said.
"Everything now is going to be moved by the FIFA executive committee decision in October.
"I have a personal opinion that it is almost inevitable. We will have to find a solution because it is very unlikely that you can play the World Cup in Qatar in the summer.
"Or maybe you can play it then but it will be impossible for fans to follow it so something will need to be addressed.
"Now it is a matter of studying the possible solutions and we will have to do it. I think it's important it's going to be a one-off and is not going to something that's going to be there forever.
"If we have to find a one-off solution I think we will be able within the football family to find it but everybody has to be properly involved and we have to consider which is the best solution for football and the fans."
Blatter had earlier stated the importance of taking the sport to different locations and embracing the various challenges that comes with it, and said he would recommend to the FIFA Executive Committee in Zurich on October 3 and 4 that the World Cup be held in winter.
"If we maintain, rigidly, the status quo, then a FIFA World Cup can never be played in countries that are south of the equator or indeed near the equator," he told insideworldfootball.com. "We automatically discriminate against countries that have different seasons than we do in Europe.
"I think it is high time that Europe starts to understand that we do not rule the world any more, and that some former European imperial powers can no longer impress their will on to others in faraway places."
