African Fifa members break off ties with Asia
The African confederation of the football's world governing board, Fifa, has broken off its relations with its Asian counterparts in protest at the vote by four Asian representatives in favour of Germany's 2006 World Cup bid rather than South Africa.
The African confederation (CAF) argued it was going to stop its co-operation with the Asian confederation (AFC) due to “a lack of support”.
The secretary-general of the AFC, Peter Velappan, said: “It was very unexpected. It really shocked us.”
However, the president of football’s world governing board (Fifa), Sepp Blatter, said that the misunderstanding between the African and Asian confederation had been resolved and that the matter was now closed.
Blatter told a news conference at the Fifa congress in Zurich that the row between the two confederations over the allocation of the 2006 World Cup to Germany had been “all but temporary”. He said: “The family of football is thankfully re-united.”
Germany was chosen by a one-vote margin, when the New Zealand delegate, Charles Dempsey, ignored the instructions from his national federation to vote for South Africa. Dempsey later resigned in the wake of the uproar caused by his abstention.
On Saturday, the Fifa congress agreed on proposals to set up a football arbitration tribunal, which would help prevent futures quarrels being taken to a civil court. The plan now needs to be given the go-ahead by the Swiss legal authorities.
However, there was less harmony among Fifa’s 203 associations, when Japan vehemently rejected proposals that it should stage the biennial Confederations Cup next year as a dress rehearsal for the 2002 World Cup which will be co-hosted with South Korea.
Japan had already dismissed a similar proposal by Fifa in March 1999 and was surprised it came up again. In a letter of protest to Blatter, received on Saturday, the Japanese association said, “The proposal from Sepp Blatter was very sudden, without any consultion beforehand, neglecting the Japanese association’s independence.”
Despite the reluctance of the Japanese, Fifa’s president said he was convinced he could bring them round to hosting the event. Japan had signalled it would be prepared to stage the 2005 Confederations Cup.
The congress delegates gave their final approval to a new allocation system of future World Cups. Blatter said he was optimistic that the system, which rotates the competition between the six continents, would be installed by 2002. According to Blatter, the hosts for the 2010 World Cup will be determined in 2004.
swissinfo with agencies
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