World soccer's governing body FIFA is to re-examine its
controversial ban on playing football at high altitude when the
organisation's executive committee meets in Zurich on
Wednesday.
The altitude ban will be one of two main topics to be discussed
-- the other being the already announced re-shuffle of FIFA's
administration following the re-election of president Sepp Blatter
in May and the subsequent departure of former general secretary Urs
Linsi is the other main issue.
FIFA's executive committee announced an immediate ban in May on
international matches played above 2,500 metres, arguing that
high-altitude sport was bad for the health of players unaccustomed
to high levels and gave an unfair advantage to the home team.
The ban drew immediate criticism from several high-lying South
American nations including Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia.
Bolivian president Evo Morales even suggested he might fly to
Zurich to speak to Blatter about the issue, but FIFA says no such
meeting has yet been scheduled. Last Thursday, Bolivian doctor Ivo
Eterovic, a member of the South American Football Confederation
(CSF) medical committee told reporters after a committee meeting
that FIFA had agreed to lift the ban, saying matches could be
played at 2,800 metres but not higher than 3,000 metres.
However a FIFA spokesman denied on Friday that any such reversal
of the original decision had been taken.
If matches were allowed at 3,000 metres they could be played in
Quito and Bogota, the capitals of Ecuador and Colombia
respectively. However, it would still mean that La Paz in Bolivia,
situated at 3,600 metres, was out of bounds.
(China Daily via Reuters June 26, 2007)