WC 2022 won\\\'t take place in Qatar : Zwanziger

BERLIN, Sept 22 (AFP): Qatar will not host the World Cup in 2022, according to Theo Zwanziger, the German member on the executive committee of world football's governing body FIFA.

"I think that at the end of the day the 2022 World Cup will not take place in Qatar," Zwanziger said in an interview with Sport Bild Plus.

The former head of the German football federation (DFB) cited high summer temperatures as the reason Qatar would lose the right to host football's global showpiece.

"As Mr Zwanziger himself says, it's his personal opinion," a FIFA spokesman responded to the news agency subsidiary SID when asked about the German's statement.

Zwanziger said: "Doctors say, and I had insisted on this point in the protocol, that they cannot guarantee that a World Cup can be held in summer in these conditions."

While Qatar has reportedly developed stadium cooling systems, Zwanziger said "the World Cup involves not only stadiums. There are fans coming from the four corners of the world who will be concerned by the heat".

"The first incident putting a life in danger will be subject to an investigation. And that, nobody in the FIFA Executive Committee would want to reply to."

But in an interview with Die Welt newspaper, Hassan al-Thawadi, secretary-general of the Qatar 2022 organising committee, declared himself "sure that the 2022 World Cup would take place in Qatar".