The Qatar Stock Exchange index fell by 1.5 per cent as of 10:40 am local time following the news late on 2 June that Sepp Blatter had resigned from his role as President of Fifa.

Real estate shares were the worst performing, down by 2.4 per cent.

Since the announcement, speculation has mounted over whether the 2022 World Cup will be rebid.

If Qatar does not host the World Cup in 2022, real estate projects such as hotels and retail space would have to reconsider their feasibility.

Qatar was planning to add 55,000 hotel rooms to cater for World Cup visitors. Eight major mall projects are also in the pipeline.

Pressure began mounting for Blatter to resign on 27 May, when Swiss police arrested Fifa members before a meeting in Zurich.

Fresh allegations surfaced on 2 June when it was revealed that Fifa’s General Secretary was responsible for a $10m payment cited in a US indictment. It was also reported that Blatter himself was under investigation.

Qatar was given confidence to move forward with World Cup projects by Fifa’s announcement that its investigation into corruption in the selection of bids for the 2018 and 2022 football World Cups had not found enough evidence of major misconduct by Qatar to strip it of the tournament in November 2014.

However, investigator Michael Garcia publically stated that this report of his investigation was “erroneous.”