The 2022 World Cup in Qatar could be held in the winter if summer temperatures proved significantly dangerous, according to a top FIFA official. Fears have been raised that the sizzling heat of the Gulf would be unsafe for teams taking part in the tournament as FIFA admitted that a winter World Cup for the first time is being considered. "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,'" FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke told a press conference. "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. "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 organize in Brazil and Russia, so there is some time."