Jim Boyce, Fifa's vice-president, has told the Premier League it would have more than enough time to prepare for a winter World Cup in Qatar.

With concerns about temperatures in the summer of 2022 going above 50 degrees in Qatar, a number of the game's leading figures have called for a switch to the winter. However, the Premier League's chief executive, Richard Scudamore, said a switch would have a three-year knock-on effect for his competition.

But a day after the Football Association's new chairman, Greg Dyke, spoke of moving to a cooler time of year, Boyce told BBC radio: "I fully understand the Premier League, but I would hope that in nine years' time, for the good of football, people can sit down and realise a sensible decision has to be made."

"Most of the opposition appears to be coming from the Premier League. There are many European countries who cannot play in the winter and do have a winter break. I read the Premier League are saying this impacts on three seasons. If people sit down and work out the calendar properly, I don't see why it would affect three seasons.

"The Premier League is probably the biggest in the world but this is nine years hence."

Boyce said any move had not been formally discussed by Fifa's executive committee, which has two remaining meetings this year.

The Northern Irishman said that his preference would be for the tournament to be held from 6 January to 9 February.

His primary concern matches that of Dyke, who on Friday said: "I don't know how many people have been to Qatar in June. I have. The one thing I can tell you is you can't play a football tournament in Qatar in June."

Boyce concurred, adding: "The World Cup is the biggest sporting event on the calendar and the situation in Qatar is the temperature exceeds, at times, 50 degrees.

"I ask the question from a health and medical point of view: how can you take thousands of people to the greatest sporting event in the world and ask them to enjoy themselves in conditions I think are impossible?"

Alex Horne, the general secretary of the FA, said any move would involve a "big jigsaw" with far-reaching consequences. The Premier League has yet to respond to the latest comments.

Tottenham's manager, André Villas-Boas, does not envisage too many problems, though. "If it is summer, they have to do something different, but at the moment I think a winter World Cup is absolutely fine. It is something which Fifa has to answer."