The move follows reports that the associations faced a renewed threat to their automatic right to the vice-president's position on the executive committee of world soccer's governing body.

Since the end of World War II, England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have shared the privilege of nominating the vice-president - who is one of the 24 members of the game's most senior decision-making board.

Northern Ireland FA president Jim Boyce has said that three members of the executive committee had told him that a motion proposing an end to this right would be put before the next Fifa Congress, in Los Angeles next July.

In the past, similar moves proposed largely by central or south American countries have been overwhelmingly defeated. However, the UK has recently clashed with other member states over a series of issues.

But on Tuesday a Fifa spokesman said: "Experience shows that it's not that easy to change the statutes.

"You have to come up with a motion which one affiliated country has to submit and then has to be supported by two other countries. "But the agenda at the Fifa Congress is always fairly limited, there aren't hundreds of motions on the agenda which the Congress has to deal with.

He added: "We've had this feeling of uneasiness towards the British situation for years but no-one has wanted to change it.

"Even the fact that Britain has four national associations has been discussed and debated for years and nothing has happened on that."

The home countries have fallen out with other Fifa members on several issues: