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Youth freedom FIFA OKs team switches, Women's World Cup sitesPosted: Saturday June 28, 2003 1:58 PMPARIS (AP) -- The six sites proposed by the U.S. Soccer Federation for this year's Women's World Cup were approved Saturday by soccer's governing body. Approval was considered a formality following the June 12 announcement by the USSF that it wanted to play in Carson, Calif.; Columbus, Ohio; Foxboro, Mass.; Philadelphia; Portland, Ore.; and Washington. China was supposed to hold the tournament but lost its role as host May 3 because of the SARS virus. On May 26, FIFA switched the 16-nation championship to the United States, which won the event as the host nation in 1999. The tournament opens Sept. 20 in Columbus and Philadelphia, and ends with the Oct. 12 final in Carson. In other business, FIFA said players with more than one passport who are under 21 most likely will be allowed to change their national team. Under the previous rule, once a player appeared in an official tournament for any national team, including youth teams with age limits, the player could not appear for any other nation, except in cases such as the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, which split into new nations. FIFA's new rule allows a player to change countries once before 21, but only if the player held dual nationality at the time the player first appeared for a national team. The change must be ratified by the FIFA congress, which meets Oct. 19-20 in Qatar. The executive committee also banned players from removing shirts during celebrations after goals, saying the objective was "maintaining discipline and order on the field of play." It also approved the emergency committee's decision to suspend Antigua and Barbuda, and approved the emergency committee's decision to lift the suspension of Azerbaijan. In addition, FIFA said nine people have been installed as interim leaders of Iraq's soccer association, with Hussein Sahid in charge. Sahid is a member of the executive committee of the Asian Football Confederation.
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