World Cup winners must get back on qualifying trail

Nov 30th, 2001

PUSAN, South Korea, Nov 30 (AFP) -- France will be the last World Cup winners to get an automatic passport to the next finals, FIFA announced Friday. The executive committee of football's international governing body decided that from next year's finals, to be held in South Korea and Japan, the winner will have to go through the qualifying tournament to reach the next finals, FIFA president Joseph Blatter said.

The move will give the champions greater competition but also open up an extra slot in the finals for regional confederations, Blatter told a press conference after the executive meeting. Traditionally world champions go straight into the finals of the next tournament. France, winners of the 1998 finals, will be the last country to benefit from direct qualification.

Blatter said FIFA leaders decided there should be a change to bring the World Cup into line with the European Championships and other continental tournaments where automatic qualification does not apply.

"This will make them better prepared and put them on the same calendar as other nations," Blatter said.

"And with no qualification of the world champions, we have one more slot available for different confederations. This is a wise decision in line with FIFA policy," added the president.

The executives also decided that referees will be allowed to wear shirts with advertising for the first time. FIFA General Secretary Michel Zen-Ruffinen said referees for club tournaments will be allowed to advertise certain products. Adverts will only be allowed on sleeves and must not be more than 200 square centimetres in size, he said. Advertising of tobacco products, alcohol or casinos, or any racist or "immoral" material, will not be permitted. Zen-Ruffinen said revenues must be used for the development of refereeing. This could include increasing match payments to enable more referees to become full time professionals.

"It is part of the concept of professionalisation. It is in no way to be used to pay part of the budget of a league," Zen-Ruffinen said.

FIFA has also reached an agreement with the World Anti-Doping Agencybut will not apply all the agency regulations, Blatter said. FIFA and WADA, a brainchild of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), have been in negotiations for more than a year over aligning drug policy. The IOC has been pressing football for several years to take a tougher line on drugs in line with other sports.

There have been a number of cases of high profile positive tests for the steroid Nandrolone in Italy in recent months, including Lazio's Dutch defender Jap Staam, Juventus' Dutch defender Edgar Davids and Brescia's Spanish midfielder Josep Guardiola who has been provisionally suspended after two positive tests for Nandrolone in two weeks.

Blatter said: "Our agreement has nothing to do with the last cases of positive doping with Nandrolone. The IOC has been inviting us for over a year to sign an accord.

"We are ready to sign an agreement but one which gives FIFA its independence," he insisted.

Staying out of the WADA mainstream will allow FIFA to apply its own sanctions. Football drug bans are normally shorter than for other sports.