Former FA chairman Greg Dyke has said that it still seems “inconceivable” to him that Qatar was selected at the vote by Fifa’s executive committee in 2010, The Sun reported.

But he said that FIFA was terrified of taking it away from Qatar for fear of litigation. The only way that the World Cup can be taken away would be for someone to “find the smoking gun or a sudden revelation”.

Earlier last week SunSport had revealed that the Foundation had unearthed evidence that former South American football boss Julio Grondona had pocketed £3.6 million in handouts ahead of the vote.

Chilean national Harold Mayne-Nicholls, who headed FIFA’s inspection team for the two tournaments, confirmed that Qatar had come ninth of the nine bidding countries in his assessment and it was the only one voted as “high risk”.

Also, the report by Jiri Dvorak, FIFA chief medical officer, had cited serious dangers to players and fans if the tournament is held in Qatar.

Despite all these adverse factors, Doha managed to beat the challenge from the US, who were in fact the favorites to win. Since then the allegations of cash for votes have hung in the air when it comes to the 2022 World Cup.

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