PRAGUE -- UEFA has told the Spanish league to stop challenging the decision to move the dates of the World Cup in 2022 to November-December.
To avoid Qatar's fierce summer heat, the 2022 World Cup is being moved from its traditional June-July slot, resulting in European competitions stopping for around two months. Fearing losses of around $70 million if the league shuts down, the Spanish league appealed against FIFA's scheduling change to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
But UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino suggested La Liga president Javier Tebas' public protest was self-motivated.
"Well, on the La Liga challenge on the Qatar World Cup, I'd say even their EPFL (European Professional Football Leagues) has agreed to new dates of Qatar,'' he said. "I think we need to take a little bit of heat out of this whole discussion. We need to be a little more realistic and reasonable and pragmatic on certain things.
"We don't need to take ourselves too serious on certain things. I mean, the World Cup is the best team competition in the world and it tends to be played, if at all possible, in the best possible conditions.
"If this means that for one year in a 150 years of history in football, as our president says, we change the calendar for one year it'll not be the end of the world.
"Of course it is not ideal but we UEFA has agreed to this, the associations are happy with it, the vast majority of the leagues are happy with it.
"The European Club Association including the Spanish clubs, members of La Liga, are happy with it so I don't know if maybe the chairman wants to get publicity or whatever else.
"But it is a bit sad that people don't accept decisions taken by the vast majority. You cannot make all the decisions unanimously because otherwise you never take any decisions, anywhere.''
The ECA and European Professional Football Leagues organisation jointly suggested starting the World Cup in May -- a proposal rejected by FIFA's executive committee in March. Some of the tensions were calmed when FIFA agreed to pay clubs worldwide $209m for releasing players for both the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
UEFA president Michel Platini could be in charge of FIFA as it grapples with the lingering fallout of the 2010 decision to vote for Qatar.
But at UEFA's executive committee meeting at a former monastery in Prague, the former France captain stayed silent on whether he will look to succeed Sepp Blatter in the FIFA presidential election, which will be in December or January.
Platini's ambitions should become clearer after FIFA's executive committee sets the election date at an emergency meeting on July 20 in Zurich.
Blatter announced plans to quit this month -- four days after being elected for a fifth term -- under pressure from FIFA sponsors over the escalating criminal investigations.
"The sooner there is clarity about what will happen with FIFA, the better for FIFA and also for football," Infantino added.