Blatter wins World Cup vote

Blatter has won a major battle

Fifa president Sepp Blatter has won his battle to ensure the World Cup will not be expanded from 32 to 36 teams in Germany in 2006.

A meeting of Fifa's executive committee in Paris on Saturday voted to keep the number of competing teams at 32.

The decision was made despite strong lobbying from the South American federation (Conmebol), but there may also be a compromise deal on the table.

The move will be regarded as an important victory by Blatter, who was vehemently opposed to any increase.

The South Americans were angry at what they saw as a decision to deprive them of a qualifying place for the World Cup.

Blatter pushed through legislation before last year's World Cup in South Korea and Japan confirming that the winners would not automatically qualify for the next tournament.

The extra place was awarded to Oceania, while South America lost the place which would have gone to winners Brazil.

But a compromise may be reached after a plan put forward by South America, who faced the prospect of having just four places - compared to 14 from Europe.

Previously they would have had four places plus Brazil as defending champions.

South America are likely to withdraw their push for an extension of the number of teams if Fifa ditch their plans to award Oceania an extra place.

They want to restore the South American play-off.

If the move had been approved, it would have resulted in the 2006 tournament lasting 34 days as opposed to 31 in 2002 and involve 72 games, an increase of eight from last year's tournament.

Blatter said before the meeting: "It is easy to say 36 is good. Maybe on paper it looks nice. But implementing such a solution would be very difficult."

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