World Cup stays at 32 teams through 2010 event

PARIS - The 2006 World Cup will remain at 32 teams, with Oceania stripped of its guaranteed berth and South America given the chance to send a fifth team to the tournament through a playoff.\nThe executive committee of soccer's governing body Saturday also said the field will not be increased for the 2010 tournament.\nSouth America had wanted to increase the field by four nations to 36 but withdrew the proposal when it became clear it would not pass.\n"Things are so clear and simple with 32 teams," FIFA president Sepp Blatter said. "Give two more here, two more there, sounds easy."\nHe said a 36-nation field was impractical "when you have to consider the details, the practical organization."\nThe vote was 22-1, with Oceania dissenting and Blatter abstaining. The executive committee voted Dec. 17 to give Oceania a guaranteed spot.\nAhongalu Fusimalohi of Tonga, Oceania's only executive committee member, said FIFA had made his region a "laughingstock."\n"We're being pushed around as if we never did exist," he told The Associated Press by phone. "If it was so right seven months ago, how can it be so wrong seven months later?"\nFusimalohi walked out of the meeting in protest along with Australia's Basil Scarsella, the president of the Oceania Football Confederation.\nScarsella, an observer of the executive committee, called the matter a "politically driven decision that's got nothing to do with common sense or the development of football."\nIn the past, the winner of Oceania qualifying always met a team from another continent in a home-and-home playoff, and no team from Oceania has played in the World Cup since New Zealand in 1982. In the last tournament, Australia lost the playoff 3-1 to Uruguay, the No. 5 team in South American qualifying.\nSouth America had been angered by December's allocation in which its berths were cut to four.\n"The decision shows quality rules," said Argentina's Julio Grondona, an executive committee member.\nFIFA did not determine how the playoff system for the 2006 World Cup would work, but Blatter said options are available.\nScarsella said Oceania would ask that instead of a simple home-and-home series, the playoff be combined with the one already scheduled between the No. 4 team from the North and Central American and Caribbean region and the No. 5 team from Asia.\nBatter said the decision to strip Oceania of its guaranteed berth was made partly because of fighting among officials of Soccer Australia and the "poor performance" of New Zealand in the Confederations Cup. New Zealand, the Oceania champion, went 0-3 and was outscored 11-1.\n"If FIFA had taken the decision for the distribution for slots for the 2006 World Cup today, Oceania would not have received a full slot," Blatter said.\nOceania already had agreed to sponsorship deals based on the berth, Fusimalohi said.\nUnder the allotment approved by the executive committee in December, Europe was awarded 14 spots, including host Germany, a drop from 15 at the 2002 tournament.\nAfrica remained at five teams, and Asia stayed at four teams with the chance to get another berth in a playoff. North and Central America and the Caribbean, which had three spots, was given the chance for a fourth through a playoff with the No. 5 Asian team.\nAssociated Press Writer Eric Nunez contributed to this report.