FIFA will not offer to pay clubs compensation for staging the 2022 World Cup in Qatar in November-December, a leading official said in Doha on Wednesday.
"There will be no compensation," FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke was quoted by the BBC and other media as saying. "There are seven years to reorganize."
A FIFA taskforce on Tuesday recommended the World Cup move from the traditional June-July slot to November-December in 2022 to avoid the searing summer temperatures in the Gulf State.
Exact dates for the tournament will be decided by the FIFA executive committee at a meeting in Zurich on March 19 and 20 if it confirms the recommendation.
Various European associations have spoken out against the decision with Bayern Munich chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, who also chairs the 214-member European Club Association (ECA), saying clubs and leagues "cannot be expected to pay the price alone for moving the FIFA World Cup to the winter."
The World Cup being held during the European winter would cause the interuption of domestic leagues and club competition on the continent.
Rummenigge said the clubs expected football's world governing body "to compensate fairly for the damage" of a new tournament date.
But Valcke moved quickly to rule out that possibility.
"Why are we talking about compensation? It's happening once, we're not destroying football," he said.
The ECA had proposed the tournament be played April-May while the International Olympic Committee had expressed concerns dates early 2022 could be used despite the winter Olympic Games taking place in Beijing or Almaty, Kazakhstan, around the same time.
Valcke added that as part of a compromise towards clubs supplying players, the 2022 World Cup would be shortened from 32 days to 28.
And the French official claimed several confederations, including European governing body UEFA, favoured the 2022 World Cup final being played just two days before Christmas on December 23.
