Valcke says Qatar did not buy World Cup vote

ZURICH (Reuters) - FIFA's general secretary Jerome Valcke denied suggesting that Qatar had "bought" the rights to stage the 2022 World Cup finals in a statement on Monday.

Referring to an email he sent to FIFA vice-president Jack Warner in which he used the phrase "bought" the World Cup, he explained: "When I refer to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in that email, what I wanted to say is that the winning bid used their financial strength to lobby for support."

(Reporting by Mike Collett, editing by Pritha Sarkar)