FIFA's former World Cup inspector has revealed that he was certain Qatar would be awarded the showpiece event three days before the decision was made, despite his recommendations against hosting the tournament there.
Harold Mayne-Nicholls, the former chairman of the Chilean FA, said that he was "not surprised" when Qatar was awarded the tournament in an interview with Sky News.
"Three days before the decision, I already had a great percent (certainty) that it would be Qatar, too many people talking about Qatar at that time, so I was not surprised when it was given the World Cup," he said.
Mayne-Nicholls said that he had written in his evaluation about the health risks of having the tournament in the Middle East during the hottest months of the year there.
"We wrote that it is very risky to play the World Cup in June-July for the health of the players," he added.
"We had no evidence that something would happen, but we said that even with the cooling system that they promised it would be very risky."
FIFA recently confirmed that the tournament would stay in Qatar whether that be in summer or winter.
Pascal Lemesre
