POSTED: Wednesday December 2nd 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FIFA Executive Committee proposes several measures to tackle football issues

Extraordinary meeting held in Cape Town - December 2nd

The FIFA Executive Committee     today held an extraordinary meeting at the request of FIFA President     Joseph S. Blatter in order to tackle various important issues that have     recently had an impact on world football, such as incidents in the recent     qualifying matches for the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™, match     control (refereeing) and irregularities in the football-betting market.     The committee discussed these matters and agreed on concrete proposals to     ensure that improvements are made in these three areas in the near future.    

With regards to the     assistance given to referees in their task of match control, the Executive     Committee expressed its support for the current experiment of including     two additional referees behind the goal lines. However, the committee     stressed that it would be too soon to implement this new system at the     2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™.

Concerning the format of the     preliminary competition of the FIFA World Cup™, the Executive Committee     agreed to request the general secretaries of all confederations to find a     means of optimising the regulations and format of the preliminary     competition. Their proposals should be presented to the committee at its     next meeting in March.

The Executive Committee     approved the creation of an international task force to fight against     irregular and illegal betting activities in football. President Blatter     informed the committee that Interpol Secretary General Ronald K. Noble had     assured FIFA of Interpol’s strong support for this task force. The     Executive Committee agreed with FIFA’s proposal to unify all football     warning systems behind this task force in order to better coordinate the     fight against these activities and enhance cooperation with Interpol,     national authorities and football authorities in this     area.

Finally, the FIFA     Disciplinary Committee will examine the case of Thierry Henry related to     the play-off match between France and the Republic of Ireland on 18     November 2009, as well as incidents relating to the matches between     Algeria and Egypt in Cairo on 14 November and in Khartoum on 18     November.

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Keywords · FIFA · Joseph S. Blatter · 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africaâ„¢ · World Cup Final Draw ·

Name: Nicolas Maingot
Organization: FIFA
Email:
Phone: +41-43/222 7272
URL: http://www.fifa.com/index.html

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