UEFA ready to go along

The offer of the half berth for the 2002 tournament was announced on Tuesday by FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who said Johansson 8212; on behalf of Europe 8212; had proposed to have one of its teams play off with an Asian counterpart for the final place in the 32-team World Cup finals. The announcement came after two days of FIFA executive committee meetings.

The offer was meant to avert a threatened boycott of qualifying by the members of the Asian Football Confederation, who were upset over their allocation of only two berths in the finals besides co-hosts Japan and South Korea.

The new proposal gives Asia 4/1-2 berths, including the co-hosts.

The deal still must be approved by UEFA8217;s executive committee, which is scheduled to meet as part of a series of meetings of the international soccer community preceding the women8217;s World Cup final on Saturday.

An AFC delegation also is scheduled to meet today and discuss the proposal, Asian Confederation general secretary Peter Velappan said.