You're reading: FIFA not planning to re-vote venues of 2018, 2022 World Cups

MOSCOW – Walter De Gregorio, a spokesman for FIFA, football's global governing body, reaffirmed that the FIFA World Cup tournaments in 2018 and 2022 will be played in Russia and Qatar, as was decided earlier.

Asked by a journalist whether there should be a re-vote over who should host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups in light of the Wednesday arrests of a number of high-ranking FIFA officials on corruption charges, Gregorio said: “Russia and Qatar will still be going ahead.”

Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said earlier on Wednesday that the FIFA executives arrested on corruption charges were not related to the 2018 World Cup bidding campaign.

“If you take these people, many of them had no relation to the 2018 World Cup bidding campaign. They were not Executive Committee members and didn’t take part [in the bidding campaign],” Mutko told Interfax on Wednesday.

Mutko is currently a member of the FIFA Executive Committee.

It was reported on Wednesday morning that several high-ranking FIFA officials were arrested in Zurich where they had arrived for an annual meeting. Western media reported that charges had been brought against Jeffrey Webb, Eugenio Figueredo, Jack Warner, Eduardo Li, Julio Rocha, Costas Takkas, Rafael Esquivel, Jose Maria Marin and Nicolas Leoz.