PARIS, 29 June 2003 — FIFA’s Executive Committee has rejected a proposal to expand the next two World Cup finals to 36 teams and backtracked on its promise to give Oceania an automatic place in the tournament.
FIFA President Sepp Blatter had made an election promise to give Oceania a guaranteed qualifying place but was defeated, he said, by democracy as the 24-man executive voted 22-1 to ditch a South American proposal to expand the tournament by four teams. Blatter, the 24th voting member of the committee, abstained.
But to placate the South Americans, FIFA also agreed yesterday to return the playoff place they lost when Oceania was awarded an automatic place last December. Oceania now has the same playoff place it previously had. The decision led to the furious Oceania delegate storming out of the meeting, after the vote was taken. He returned to witness the post-meeting news conference in which Blatter was asked how he felt about backing out of one of his election pledges — to give Oceania a place at the finals.
“You win some and you lose some,” said Blatter. “I had to bow to the democracy of FIFA.” Blatter blamed Oceania’s fate on the “ambiguous situation” surrounding Australian soccer and New Zealand’s poor performance at the Confederations Cup finals in France this month, where they were heavily defeated in all three group matches.
Blatter said the decision to opt for 32 finalists for the 2006 and 2010 World Cup tournaments was taken after consultation studies with fans and was “the right solution.” Franz Beckenbauer, the president of Germany’s 2006 World Cup Organizing Committee, said: “In our view the current form is optimal. Even though we have the greatest amount of respect for the (South American) proposal, it has become quite clear that there could not be a transparent or fair set up for 36 teams.”
Regarding Oceania, Blatter said he would “do my utmost to bring them back into the FIFA family” and dropped a clear hint that, with four teams taking playoff places, Oceania could host a playoff mini-tournament for the World Cup finals.
The president of the Oceania confederation Basil Scarsella of Australia was not impressed. “I don’t think this is a moral, ethical or commercial decision. Simply a political one that does no favors for FIFA of the development of the game,” he said.
He said Blatter’s explanation regarding Australia and New Zealand was short-term opportunism to justify a long-term decision. “FIFA is grasping for straws to justify it,” he said. “It’s a disaster for Oceania.”
