diff --git a/WHATSNEW b/WHATSNEW
index b0a878cb5..586eb6f21 100644
--- a/WHATSNEW
+++ b/WHATSNEW
@@ -47,6 +47,10 @@ What's new in Sudo 1.7.3?
    specified as floating point numbers for more granular timeout
    values.
 
+ * Negating the fqdn option in sudoers now works correctly when sudo
+   is configured with the --with-fqdn option.  In previous versions
+   of sudo the fqdn was set before sudoers was parsed.
+
 What's new in Sudo 1.7.2?
 
  * A new #includedir directive is available in sudoers.  This can be
diff --git a/plugins/sudoers/sudoers.c b/plugins/sudoers/sudoers.c
index 0d113e1dd..0879353ac 100644
--- a/plugins/sudoers/sudoers.c
+++ b/plugins/sudoers/sudoers.c
@@ -764,11 +764,6 @@ init_vars(char * const envp[])
 #endif
 
     /* It is now safe to use log_error() and set_perms() */
-
-    if (def_fqdn) {
-	/* may call log_error() */
-	set_fqdn();
-    }
 }
 
 /*