FIFA Eliminates Bid for Winner of World Cup

The ground shifted noticeably beneath international soccer Friday, when FIFA ruled that the winner of the World Cup no longer will qualify automatically for the next tournament, as has been the case for 71 years.

In other words, no matter which nation wins next summer’s event in Japan and South Korea, it will not earn a free ticket to the Germany 2006 World Cup.

“We’ve taken quite a historic decision today,” Sepp Blatter, FIFA’s president, said in Pusan, South Korea, where the draw will be held today to divide 32 World Cup teams into eight groups of four for first-round play in the May 31-June 30 world championship.

The announcement caught many by surprise. Such a move had not even been rumored, but Blatter said it was for the sport’s good.

“The world champion should be playing competitive matches,” he said. Speculation in South Korea was that the six continental confederations soon will begin arguing over which deserves the berth that had gone to the defending champion.

A likely scenario would be for it to be awarded to Oceania, which has been shut out of the World Cup more often than not because qualifying rules call for its champion to go into a playoff against teams from Asia, Europe or South America.

In other decisions, FIFA:

* Decided to change South America’s single-league, round-robin qualifying format that required each country to play 18 qualifying games. “A new format will have to be found,” Blatter said.

* Said it might scrap the Confederations Cup and, starting in 2003, replace it with the World Club Championship.