[Shaun]

Fifa has admitted for the first time that the 2022 World Cup in Qatar could be moved to winter if medical reports show summer temperatures would be dangerously high.

The world governing body had previously suggested that Qatar would have to make the request to move the tournament.

But speaking at the International Football Association Board meeting in Edinburgh - the body that governs the laws of football - general secretary Jerome Valcke became the first senior Fifa official to say that the event could be moved if Fifa received strong medical advice that it needed to do so.

"Maybe the Fifa Exco [executive committee] will say based on medical reports or whatever: 'We really have to look at playing the World Cup not in summer but in winter.'"

Organisers in Qatar, where temperatures can reach 50C in summer, have previously stated that any decision on moving to a winter date would have to be made by 2014 in order to give national leagues and competitions sufficient time to reorganise their calendars.

However, Valcke believes that the timeframe for any decision could be extended to 2015.

"I am not saying that the case is closed but what I'm saying is as long as we have not fixed the international calendar all alternatives are open," he continued.

"I can tell you there is no working group within Fifa thinking and working on what it means to move the World Cup from summer to winter for the time being.

"The international calendar has been agreed for 2015 to 2018, meaning that we kept open all potential for the period 2019 to 2022. We have time.

"I think it would be good to have a final decision about when this World Cup will be played and have an agreement between all the football family, but it's in 2022, nine years, and we have two World Cups to organise in Brazil and Russia, so there is some time."

Could be interesting...