Africa cuts Asia football ties

South Africa withdrew a proposed court battle

By Harry Peart in Zurich

African football officials have broken off relations with their Asian counterparts as a result of last month's controversial decision to award the 2006 World Cup to Germany.

The four senior Asian members of football's world governing body, Fifa, all voted for Germany.

The two-day congress in Zurich of all 204 football-playing nations appeared to end in harmony.

But underlying the main meeting has been the rift between the African and Asian Confederations.

Rift

An African statement said the severed relations was a result of the lack of support by Asian members of the Fifa executive who voted for Germany instead of South Africa.

Sepp Blatter: No knowledge of rift

The Asian Confederation said the breaking off of relations was taken on a unilateral basis by the Africans, with no chance for discussion.

Two major Afro-Asian football competitions have been discontinued, as well as exchanges of team officials between the two continents.

The news took Fifa by surprise.

In a statement, it said the Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, and other Fifa sources strongly denied any knowledge of any kind of rift between the two confederations.

Proposals

All seemed to be calm when South Africa withdrew its proposed court battle with Fifa over the voting procedure for the 2006 World Cup.

Up till then, Mr Blatter had been pleased with the congress, which had agreed to his proposal that the World Cup should rotate around the six continental confederations, and endorsed an international world calender.

The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan was welcomed into Fifa to become the 204th member.

There was some disquiet that North Korea failed to appear, even though there are moves to have them stage some matches in the 2002 World Cup co-hosted by Japan and South Korea.

Mr Blatter has the chance to head off many future controversies.

The statutes of Fifa, all the rules and regulations, will be rewritten in time for the 100th anniversary of the founding of the most powerful of the sporting federations.