China has chance to hold World Cup 2042

Chinese Soccer Development Forum held in Beijing on 11th , UEFA President Michel Platini attended the meeting. He delivered his speech and answered several questions about China football.

Chinese fans are eager to host a World Cup and even dream one day China could lift the World Cup trophy, but the former Ballon d’Or winner Platini thinks fans should ­remain patient.

As Qatar won the bid to host the 2022 event, normally China should wait another 20 years for a chance to bid,so China might hold World Cup in 2042. But Platini added, “there’s nothing normal in FIFA.”

“I think representing in every World Cup Finals every four years is more important than winning one,” he said.

Platini also suggest that several promising Chinese players, including Zhang Xizhe of Beijing Guoan and Wu Lei of Shanghai SIPG, are eyeing moves to European top-tier soccer league sides, but he gave a short shrift to the idea.

He recommended that ­China should improve its home facilities and systems rather than always eyeing having ­players in Europe.

For international football,he remarked that the 2022 FIFA World Cup will not be staged in the summer in Qatar due to the ­unbearable heat, the Frenchman said Tuesday in Beijing at the Chinese Soccer Development Forum.

The FIFA decision will definitely impact the Winter Olympic Games, for which Beijing is jointly bidding with Zhang­jiakou, Hebei Province.

Platini, head of the most influential member confederation under FIFA, said he believes there is enough time to coordinate between the clubs and hosts before the 2022 World Cup Finals.

Despite International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach saying previously that FIFA President Sepp Blatter had promised him that the two events will not clash, ­Blatter’s comments are often considered unreliable.