Soccer officials openly discussed changing the dates of the 2022 World Cup to avoid the summer heat in Qatar in the weeks before voting, a FIFA executive committee member said.

Qatar beat the US, Australia, Japan and South Korea to win rights to the event, which is usually held in June and July, summer in Europe and North America.

While none of the bidders proposed changing the dates, FIFA President Sepp Blatter said he expects a switch to winter. The temperature in Qatar rarely falls below 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in June and July, raising questions about players’ health.

“There were comments like that some weeks before the decision,” said Chuck Blazer, a US official on the executive body, referring to talks about bringing the event forward. “Otherwise I really couldn’t understand how they voted for football in that level of temperatures, because I knew them well enough, and their support for their own teams, so it seemed illogical.”