FIFA's executive committee will convene in October to discuss the issue of playing the 2022 World Cup in Qatar in the winter, the world governing body has announced.
On Wednesday, FIFA president Sepp Blatter confronted the issue of playing in the searing June heat of Qatar by stating he believed it could not take place in the summer.
A FIFA spokesman said on Thursday: "As mentioned by the FIFA President yesterday, he will bring forward the matter of playing the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar in winter to the FIFA executive committee on the occasion of their next meeting scheduled for October 3 and 4, 2013.
"This matter will now be with the executive committee and we can therefore not comment further before the meeting has taken place."
Blatter has been moving towards the idea of a winter World Cup for several months, and said: "If this World Cup is to become a party for the people, you can't play football in the summer. You can cool down the stadiums, but you can't cool down the whole country."
Source: PA
