5 Apr 2014

No re-vote on 2022 World Cup

6:05 am on 5 April 2014

FIFA's medical officer Michel D'Hooghe says there will be no re-vote on the controversial decision to award Qatar the 2022 World Cup finals.

His comments come a day after Japan said it was ready to step in if FIFA stripped Qatar of staging the 2022 World Cup.

D'Hooghe was one of the FIFA executive committee members who in 2010 awarded the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 edition to Qatar.

Both decisions caused uproar and led to widespread allegations regarding the bidding process, which are now being investigated by FIFA ethics chief Michael Garcia.

The move to give the World Cup to Qatar, a country with little football history, provoked widespread condemnation particularly over health concerns for leading players forced to play in the desert nation's stifling summer heat.

Such was the backlash football chiefs are now considering moving the tournament to the European winter for the first time.

Meanwhile D'Hooghe remains adamant the 2022 World Cup can't be played in the heat of a Qatari summer, a point the technical inspectors who examined the original bid had long flagged up as a potential problem.