Yahoo News 
FIFA fully committed to ‘challenge’ of a Qatar World Cup
FIFA president Sepp Blatter admits the Qatar World Cup will pose a “challenge” – but can also be a chance to show how a smaller nation can host football’s biggest event.
The consultation process started yesterday to switch the 2022 tournament from summer to winter amid furore over the decision to stage the contest in the Middle East.
But Blatter has dismissed fears teams will boycott Qatar in protest, with November/December and January/February mooted as potential dates.
After allegations of possible corruption for the bidding process that saw Russia and Qatar awarded the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, investigator Michael Garcia is set to reveal his findings on the Gulf state to an ethics committee by October.
And Blatter said: “For the time being we are strong to maintain the organisation of the World Cup in Russia and in Qatar in 2022.
“In the rotation of the World Cup it was obvious that one day we should give the World Cup also to the Arabic world.
“It was a democratic decision taken by secret ballot and this was their decision. Now we have to make the best of it in order to show that also a small country can host the World Cup. But it is a challenge.
He added: “The other competitions are going to the smaller countries and one revolutionary decision we have taken in FIFA is to play the Under-17 Women’s World Cup in 2016 in the middle of the Arabic world in Jordan.
“We are going to play a women’s competition where it will have a big impact on the development of women’s football but also on the development of women in the Islamic culture.”
Jordan’s FIFA executive committee member Prince Ali Bin al Hussein added: “It would make much more sense to have it in the winter. I hope things go smoothly but it would be wonderful to have a World Cup in our part of the world.”
