There have been long-held concerns regarding the searing heat that players and fans will need to contend with at the showpiece event, with summer temperatures reaching 50°C.
As a result there have been calls to move the tournament to the northern hemisphere’s winter rather than the summer months in the middle of the year.
Blatter concedes that the choice of Qatar as the host nation has it’s problems, but that the global nature of the game necessitates that the World Cup is hosted on numerous continents.
“It may well be that we made a mistake at the time,” said Blatter.
“On the other hand, you must also consider political and geo-political realities. The World Cup is FIFA’s biggest, if not only, global event. Who are we, the Europeans, to demand that this event has to cater to the needs of 800 million Europeans above all?
“I think it is high time that Europe starts to understand that we do not rule the world anymore, and that some former European imperial powers can no longer impress their will on to others in faraway places.
“We must accept that football has moved away from being a European and South American sport, it has become the world sport that billions of fans are excitedly following every week, everywhere in the world.”
Blatter will in October attempt to convince the FIFA Executive Committee to switch the World Cup to winter.
“After many discussions, deliberations and critical review of the entire matter, I came to the conclusion that playing the World Cup in the heat of Qatar’s summer was simply not a responsible thing to do,” he explained.
“First, we need to see whether the owner of the FIFA World Cup – FIFA – actually agrees with my recommendation, one that I shall table at the October 3/4 ExCo meeting, and whether it follows my advice to change the dates from summer to winter.
“Once the Executive Committee of FIFA has agreed to that, we can take the next step.
