UNDATED. Sept 8 (AFP/ Internet): Football chiefs in Japan and South Korea, the joint hosts o£ the 2002 World Cup. expressed relief Wednesday over a deal that has lifted the threat of an Asian boycott of the tournament.
Asian countries had threatened to pull out of 2002 qualifiers after being handed only four guaranteed places at the tournament — including the joint hosts.
But after months of brinkmanship, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) agreed Tuesday to drop its demand for an automatic fifth berth, settling instead for the possibility of securing an extra spot via a play-off against one of the runners up in the European qualifiers.
"We feel relieved that the 2002 World Cup can now go ahead with no problems,” Park Jin-Bai of the Korea World Cup Organising Committee told
"As an Asian country, we are happy that the Aslan countries will now not boycott the World Cup which we are preparing for. Our plans are now to concentrate fully on planning for the World Cup," Park said.
South Korea's FIFA representative Chung Mong-Joon was one of the prime movers behind the threatened boycott of the event.
"The solution is what we had expected." Japan Football As-sociation president Shunichiro Okano said. 'Tm still wondering about the outcome of the 0.5 playoff spot."
The boycott threat was averted when FIFA president Sepp Blatter and Asian confederation president Sultan Ahmad Shah reached an agreement on the allocation of teams for the finals in Zurich.
Tile Asian Football Confederation (AFC) will remain with ibur-and-a half berths, but
FIFA said in a statement it will reconsider the allocation of Asian teams for the 2006 World Cup.
The four and a half berths comprise the two co-hosts Japan and South Korea, two qualifiers and one Asian team that will play off against a European team for a place in the finals. As part of the agreement, the FIFA executive will decide on the distribution of Asian teams for the 2006 World Cup before the kick off of the 2002 preliminary co apetition.
The proposal will be submit-
ted to the FIFA executive committee at its meetings in Las Vegas on October 1-2.
"I am happy ti resolve the differences between FIFA and my Confederation regarding the number of seats for the 2002 finals." said Sultan Ahmad Shah in a statement.
"Now we can move forward for the good of the game in Asia and devote our full attention to the successor the World Cup."
The Asian Confederation's participation in the World Cup was thrown into doubt when the AFC delegation walked out of a FIFA extraordinary congress in July, after the world governing body refused to increase the number of Aslan qualifying berths for the finals, which will be co-hosted for the first time by the Koreans and Japanese.
The AFC had originally de-manded a full extra qualifying spot at. the next World Cup bringing its quota to five, but was granted only half a place.
That half place was given up by UEFA, the governing body of European football, in what was expected to have been a satisfactory compromise.
Europe's top football administrators had agreed to stage a play-off with Asia for the last qualifying spot in 2002 in order. they said, to show solidarity with the rest of the world.
FIFA in cooperation with the Confederations concerned will decide on the play-off status for the 2002 finals before the draw in December 1999.
"Unity in football has been restored and remains our priory objective in the future." said Blatter.
The walkout strained relationships between the AFC and FIFA. Blatter, bitterly saying, "that no team has ever won a match by leaving the field of play before the end of the match."
Part of the agreement signed at FIFA's Zurich headquarters stated the two bodies would, "bear no ill-will against each other." over the walkout and would, "strive hard to restore a cordial relationship and cooperation which are vital for the good of the game."
With the agreement, the AFC has cancelled an extraordinary session which had been scheduled for October 10 in Kuala Lumpur and asked member associations to submit their entries to participate in the World Cup.