Fifa rethinks World Cup

Germany was delighted with the outcome

By sports correspondent Harry Peart

Senior officials of football's world governing body, Fifa, are meeting in Switzerland to discuss changes to the way the venue for the World Cup is decided.

The meeting follows last month's protest by South Africa after it was beaten by Germany by one vote for the right to host the 2006 World Cup tournament.

The meeting in Zurich will consider a number of proposals, including the rotation of the World Cup between continents.

Dempsey's controversial abstention was heavily criticised

It will be the first time that the 24-man Fifa executive committee has met since the controversial decision.

Charles Dempsey, the delegate from Oceania, was widely blamed for South Africa's defeat after he abstained, but the South Africans were also disappointed that all four Asian delegates voted for Germany after indicating they would back the South African bid.

Various options

The president of Fifa, Sepp Blatter, who supported South Africa, has called for an open discussion on future bidding process.

The options on offer include:

• rotating the World Cup around the six confederations
• limiting the number of candidates per continent
• the possibility of designating the venues of two consecutive World Cups to prevent the costly and sometimes bitter bidding campaigns.

Finding a solution is high on the list of Mr Blatter's priorities. He became president two years ago on a platform of taking the World Cup to South Africa for the first time.

Having failed to do so, his position has been weakened, leading into the 2002 presidential election.

The internal wranglings within the executive committee will make it hard to produce an easy solution.

Europe is the dominant financial force within the game and would not want to see it reduced to staging the Cup once every 24-years.

A compromise is more likely, but will be difficult to attain.