FIFA could consider Qatar World Cup `winter switch` fearing oppressive heat

Manama: FIFA has suggested for the first time that the 2022 World Cup in Qatar could be moved to winter if medical evidence showed that playing in the intense summer heat would be dangerous.

FIFA has previously insisted that Qatar would have to make the request to move the tournament. But the emirate placed responsibility on world football`s governing body to make the call. According to Gulf News, in a sign that the impasse could be ending, FIFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke said the executive committee could decide on the shift to winter if the June temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius are deemed dangerous. Valcke is sure that moving the tournament would not open up FIFA to legal challenges from the United States, Japan, South Korea and Australia, who lost out to Qatar in the 2010 vote. ANI