UEFA ready to go along

LOS ANGELES, JULY 8: European soccer's governing body will go along with a deal to split a World Cup berth with Asia, partly out of respe...

LOS ANGELES, JULY 8: European soccer’s governing body will go along with a deal to split a World Cup berth with Asia, partly out of respect for the Europeans on FIFA’s executive committee.

“I am quite confident,” UEFA president Lennart Johansson said yesterday, adding his organization’s leaders have traditionally followed the lead of FIFA’s European members.

The offer of the half berth for the 2002 tournament was announced on Tuesday by FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who said Johansson — on behalf of Europe — 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.

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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 UEFA’s executive committee, which is scheduled to meet as part of a series of meetings of the international soccer community preceding the women’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.