The 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar will not be held in June and July, according to the governing body s general secretary Jerome Valcke.
Long-standing fears over soaring temperatures in Qatar have prompted plenty of debate as to the staging of the tournament in its traditional mid-year slot.
But Valcke has hinted that the World Cup will be switched to later in the year in response to mounting criticism and pressure to consider the possible health implications on fans, officials and players due to the desert heat.
The dates for the World Cup (in Qatar) will not be June-July, he told Radio France.
To be honest, I think it will be held between November 15 and January 15 at the latest.
If you play between November 15 and the end of December that s the time when the weather conditions are best, when you can play in temperatures equivalent to a warm spring season in Europe, averaging 25 degrees. That would be perfect for playing football.
However, FIFA vice president Jim Boyce – a member of the Executive Committee tasked with deciding the fate of the 2022 tournament – insisted that as far as he was concerned, no formal decision had yet been taken.
It was agreed that all the major stakeholders would meet, they would all have an input and then a decision would be taken, he told Sky Sports News.
That has not yet happened.
(As a next step) all the major stakeholders should meet and that should be brought back to the FIFA Executive Committee.
As far as I am concerned, the decision will not be taken until the end of 2014, possibly the beginning of 2015.
As it stands at this moment in time, it (the World Cup) will be in the summer.
What I suspect might have happened is that perhaps Jerome is stating a personal opinion that has been picked up wrongly and taken out of context.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter asserted in November that a Qatar World Cup could only be held in the months of November and December, although rescheduling the competition would cause disruption to the European club football calendar.
The 2022 World Cup has been beset by controversy since it was awarded to the Arab state back in 2010, with the country s human rights record coming in for particular scrutiny.
Football s governing body has previously been urged to investigate abuses of workers on construction projects for the World Cup revealed by Amnesty International, while FIFA has also been lobbied to pressure Qatar to change their controversial law prohibiting homosexuality.
