Fifa secretary-general Jerome Valcke has said the Qatar 2022 World Cup will not be held in summer.

“The dates for the World Cup [in Qatar] will not be in June-July,” Valcke said in an interview with Radio France. “To be honest, I think it will be held between 15 November and 15 January [2023] at the latest,” said Valcke.

The dates for Qatar hosting the 2022 World Cup has been a contentious issue since it was awarded the rights to host the event in late 2010.

In December last year, Fifa announced it would make an official decision on whether it will move the 2022 World Cup from summer to winter in December 2014.

Following its final Executive Committee meeting of 2013, Fifa revealed that between January and August this year, the world governing body would meet its stakeholders, including the clubs who release players to national teams and Fifa’s business partners, before eventually making a presentation on its findings to the committee in December.

Over the past few months, there has been growing pressure from Fifa officials and other football leaders to move the tournament to the winter to avoid the summer heat of Qatar.

Sepp Blatter, Fifa president, announced in October that a taskforce would look at alternative dates.

In early November, Blatter ruled out the prospect of the 2022 World Cup being moved to January or February of that year, as it would clash with the Winter Olympics, which typically gets under way inside the first two weeks of February.

Qatar has publicly stated that moving the dates will not affect its plans for the tournament, which include the delivery of $70bn-worth of infrastructure projects. Qatar recently announced plans to issue new tenders for five stadium projects in 2014.