No winter World Cup in Qatar, says Fifa

BERNE - Fifa has quashed talk of a winter World Cup in 2022, saying it has no plans to change the international calendar and that any switch of dates would have to be proposed by the Qatari hosts

Qatar has already said it wants to stage the tournament in the summer as presented in its bid.

"Any potential move of the 2022 Fifa World Cup from a summer to a winter period would have to be initiated by the football association of Qatar and would have to be presented to the Fifa Executive Committee," Fifa said.

"At this stage there are no concrete plans to change the international match calendar."

The statement appeared to mark a U-turn by soccer's governing body as Fifa president Sepp Blatter said this month that he expected the tournament to be staged in the winter.

But Mohammed Bin Hammam, the Qatari president of the Asian Football Confederation, said the 2022 World Cup hosts would resist efforts to reschedule the tournament.

Fifa executive committee member Chuck Blazer, who represents the US, told Reuters that switching the event to winter may take 10 weeks out of the international club season.