FIFA president Sepp Blatter (Getty Images). FIFA president Sepp Blatter (Getty Images).

FIFA president Sepp Blatter said on Monday that there was no reason to consider taking the World Cup 2022 tournament away from Qatar.

At a press conference in Zurich, Blatter said FIFA's executive committee had received no further evidence on claims Qatar had paid bribes to members to secure the World Cup.

As a result, he said there was no reason to prompt a formal investigation into allegations from a whistleblower that Qatar had paid FIFA members Issa Hayatou and Jacques Anouma $1.5m each to secure their vote.

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"The World Cup 2022 is not touched," he said. "I believe that the decision we took for the 2022 World Cup was done exactly in the same pattern and environment as the 2018 World Cup and there was no problem for FIFA to act in this direction."

Blatter conceded that FIFA's reputation had been badly damaged over the past few weeks because of the bribery allegations surrounding the governing body.

Football is not in a crisis," he told reporters. "We are only in some difficulties which will be dealt with internally."

Asked about the withdrawal of Qatar's Mohamed bin Hammam from the presidential election to be held on June 1, Blatter said he was prepared to go into the election process.

He refused to be drawn on why the Asian Football Confederation chief had pulled out.

Earlier on Monday, FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke confirmed he had said in a private email that Qatar had bought the rights to stage the 2022 World Cup.

The email was made public by FIFA vice-president Jack Warner after he was suspended by FIFA on Sunday over claims Bin Hammam had offered cash bribes for votes in his campaign to replace Sepp Blatter as president of soccer’s ruling body.

Qatar’s World Cup organisers “categorically” denied the claims and said they were seeking legal advice and urgent clarification from FIFA.

Valcke later denied suggesting Qatar had "bought" the rights to stage the 2022 World Cup finals, saying merely that the Gulf nation's financial muscle had helped them lobby support.

Referring to the leaked email, he explained: "What I wanted to say is that the winning bid used their financial strength to lobby for support. They were a candidate with a very important budget and have used it to heavily promote their bid all around the world in a very efficient manner."

Bin Hammam earlier said he would appeal against his provisional suspension from FIFA, in the hope of taking part in the governing body's congress on June 1.

The Qatari, who was temporarily banned from all soccer activities by a FIFA ethics committee on Sunday, said in a statement on his website that he had been "punished before I am found guilty".

The ethics committee said he and FIFA vice-president Jack Warner had a case to answer over allegations that Caribbean delegates were paid in return for promises to vote for Bin Hammam in the FIFA election, which he had been due to contest with Sepp Blatter before withdrawing from the campaign.

However, allegations against FIFA president Sepp Blatter were dropped after the ethics committee decided he had no case to answer.

Blatter was included after bin Hammam, president of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), said the FIFA president, who is standing for a fourth term, might have known about cash payments to delegates.