The United Arab Emirates has won the right to host FIFA's World Club Cup in 2009 and 2010 after beating off rival bids from Japan and Australia. FIFA's executive board agreed to move the tournament, which features the champions of each of the continental confederations, from Japan, where it has been held since 2005. “We wanted to bring the Club World Cup to other countries. To play it in the UAE will be beneficial from a marketing standpoint,” FIFA President Sepp Blatter told a news conference in Sydney. “And the fact that they pledged $5 million for grass-roots development helped their case.” Japan was given some consolation for its loss when it awarded the tournament in 2011 and 2012 while Australia, which had been hoping to use the event to boost its chances of staging the World Cup in 2018, was overlooked altogether. “Australia presented an exceptional bid but one of the reasons we could not consider Australia was because of time constraints,” Blatter added. “But I can assure Australia that when bidding for the World Cup comes around, distances will not come into consideration.” Blatter also left the door open for European nations to bid in future. The FIFA executive committee also announced it had awarded the 2010 women's Under-17 World Cup to Trinidad and Tobago, the 2011 men's Under-17 World Cup to Mexico and the 2011 Under-20 World Cup to Colombia. Altitude ban goes The FIFA executive committee also bowed to pressure from South America and backed down from its ban on international matches played at high altitude. Blatter announced that the executive committee had agreed to temporarily suspend the altitude ruling. Blatter proposed replacing the altitude ban with a package of laws regulating “Football Under Extreme Conditions” – including heat, humidity and cold as well as pollution. A FIFA resolution last year restricted international matches above 2,750 meters (9,020 feet) to only those games in which visiting players had enough time to acclimatize to less oxygen-rich atmosphere. FIFA warns Iraq Blatter has, meanwhile, urged the Iraqi government to stop interfering in sport to avoid being banned from international soccer and this year's Beijing Olympics. FIFA slapped a temporary suspension on the Iraqi football team and threatened to extend the ban to one year after the government announced last week they were disbanding the National Olympic Committee of Iraq. Blatter said Iraq's actions were in strict breach of FIFA's regulations outlawing political interference and the executive board was forced to take action. “This was a very sad decision.... but the executive board were left with no other alternative other than to suspend the federation,” he told a news conference on Tuesday. FIFA's executive board, which completed a two-day meeting in Sydney on Tuesday, has left the door open for Iraq to earn a reprieve by giving the government until Thursday to reverse their decision or face a 12 month ban from international football. That decision will be put to the FIFA Congress, which meets in Sydney on Friday and requires a 75 percent vote to be passed. The Iraqi government notified the Iraqi Football Association on Monday that it was not affected by the government decision to disband the National Olympic Committee of Iraq, in the hope that FIFA would agree to lift the ban. But Blatter rejected the Iraqi government's position, saying the decision to disband the Olympic committee had far-reaching effects. “By dissolving the national Olympic committee they have automatically dissolved all the sports federations including football,” he said.
