Direct entry

Oceania awarded World Cup berth for 2006 finals

MADRID (Reuters) -- Oceania will have a direct qualification place for the World Cup for the first time in 2006, after FIFA agreed a shake-up in the allocation system at its executive committee meeting in Madrid on Tuesday.

UEFA will lose half a place, meaning 13 countries will qualify from Europe, plus host nation Germany for the 32-nation final.

CONMEBOL, the South American confederation, was the other loser at the meeting. Its allocation is also trimmed by half a place and it will have four teams at the next World Cup.

World champion Brazil will be among the nations bidding for one of those four places as the holder will no longer qualify directly for the finals.

CONCACAF, the North and Central American Confederation, gains half a place to three-and-a-half, while the African confederation CAF continues to have five places and Asia stays with four-and-a-half.

That will mean CONCACAF and Asia playing off for the 32nd and final place at Germany 2006, FIFA, soccer's world governing body, decided.

Strongest team

Oceania president Basil Scarsella welcomed the decision which on current form almost guarantees Australia, by far the strongest team in the confederation, a place in the finals for the foreseeable future.

"As an Australian it's great and as president of Oceania it's great for the whole confederation," Scarsella told reporters after the meeting. "The place is for Oceania, not Australia.

"FIFA were pretty united over the decision to give us a spot.

"The talks were in line with the feeling that's been there for the last couple of months.

"If we were going to be treated as a full confederation, at least one direct spot was inevitable."

The last representatives of Oceania to reach the World Cup finals were New Zealand in 1982. Australia made the finals in 1974 in Germany.

After easily winning the Oceania qualifying, Australia fell at the final hurdle in the last three campaigns -- losing to South America's fifth team Argentina for the 1994 tournament, Asia's fourth-ranked nation Iran for 1998 and Uruguay in 2002.

Julio Cesar Grondon, the president of the Argentine Football Federation, said he was not too unhappy by the decision to cut half a place from South America.

"We have to accept it," Grondon said. "We can't be too disappointed.

"There are more important things in the world than half a place more or less at the World Cup."

Linsi appointed FIFA secretary-general full time

MADRID (Reuters) -- Urs Linsi has been appointed fulltime general secretary of world soccer's governing body, FIFA said Tuesday.

The 53-year-old Swiss was appointed FIFA's interim general secretary in June after Michel Zen-Ruffinen was sacked by president Sepp Blatter following Blatter's re-election.

Zen-Ruffinen had alleged Blatter could have committed criminal acts under the Swiss penal code during his time at FIFA. Blatter was cleared of these accusations earlier this month by prosecutors.

"I am delighted that the executive committee has concurred with my proposal and confirmed Urs Linsi in the role of FIFA general secretary," said Blatter.

"Over the last six months, he has proven his ability, not only in his expert area of finance, but also in his efforts to restructure the FIFA general secretariat."

Linsi had been FIFA's financial director and Zen-Ruffinen's deputy. He has a doctorate in economics and worked in investment banking for over 20 years.

 

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