For Qatar or Russia to be stripped of the World Cup, a key person in the legal chain needs to make use of the powers available to him.

Events of recent days, however, suggest FIFA's independent ethics judge, Joachim Eckert, will interpret the rules more cautiously and have added to the pessimism of critics who want the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosting awards overturned.

Eckert is a middle man in the process - between Michael Garcia, the ethics prosecutor who must provide the evidence, and FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who heads the 27-member executive committee and congress of 209 national associations.