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South America to retain its soccer berths

FIFA president Sepp Blatter on Sunday discounted rumours that South America was scheduled to lose one berth in the 32 qualifiers for the 2002 World Cup, in favour of Africa.

"There can be no intention and even less decision until the 2002 World Cup committee is formed," he said. "We shall analyse the results from this World Cup and only until we study that analysis can anything be decided," he added.

South America had five teams in France - four qualifiers and defending champions Brazil. Africa had an equal number.

The fear, however, is that if places for 2002 are redistributed then Europe, which had 15 countries at this World Cup, is likely to lose out.

Speaking one day after soccer's undisputed superstar Pele had launched a blistering attack on the refereeing during the just completed France World Cup, Blatter praised the officials and said they had contributed towards the success of the tournament.

"We will be analysing the refereeing after the World Cup. I have to say, all in all, that the performances of the referees have been correct," Blatter said at a media briefing. "They protected the players against players who wanted to destroy the game, you cannot say that they haven't contributed to the success of the tournament."

A day earlier, Pele had accused the referees of not acting in the same way towards certain offences, calling the standard of refereeing "the weak point" of the tournament.

World Cup Organising Committee chairman Lennart Johansson told the media that in his opinion, FIFA needed to look at modern techniques, such as off-pitch video technology. "But we have to avoid the situation where referees are running to a screen to watch every time to see if a free kick is right," cautioned Johansson. "Matches would last nine hours."

FIFA has always resisted the idea of using slow motion replays to change decisions during a game, though indicating that they could be used to help determine disciplinary measures later.

Johansson, who is also president of European governing body UEFA, said he had been struck by the amount of shirt-pulling at the finals in France, adding that the problem had to be solved.

"There is too much grabbing of shirts," he said. "There has been both offensive and fair football. But the grabbing of shirts, we have to do something about it."

A decision meanwhile is awaited on the future of the World Cup's third place play-off amid suggestions that it should be scrapped.

Blatter said: "We're going to look into it to see if the third place match should be played at all. It is a subject we are often asked about. The European championships don't have one, although it is played everywhere else. We will have to see."

The third place play-off between the losing semifinalists has been played at every tournament since 1934, barring 1950. In the current edition, the Netherlands went down by the odd goal in three to Croatia, giving the latter nation a third place in its first entry into the Cup.

Croatian striker Davor Suker, further, topped the tournament's goal-scorer's list with seven, to take the prestigious Golden Boot.