UEFA Executive Committee Paris Decisions

Format of European qualifiers for FIFA World Cup 2014 approved

The UEFA Executive Committee, chaired by UEFA President Michel Platini, met in Paris, during the afternoon of Sunday 20 March and the morning of Monday 21 March 2011 and took the following main decisions:

• Approved the format of the European qualifiers to the FIFA World Cup 2014, whereby the 53 participating teams will be split into 8 groups of 6 teams and 1 group of 5 teams. The 9 group-winners will be qualified for the FIFA World Cup and the 8 best runners-up will contest home-and-away play-off matches to determine which additional 4 teams will qualify and take up the 13 slots allocated to the European confederation. This proposal will be sent to FIFA for ratification.

• Appointed Istanbul, Turkey, to host the 2012 UEFA Congress.

• Approved the recommendations made by the working group on corruption/matchfixing which focus on establishing a network of integrity officers around Europe involving all national associations and on fostering collaboration with state authorities.

• Re-confirmed its previous decision to automatically suspend the Football Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina as from 1 April 2011 if the necessary statutory changes are not made by then.

• Approved the regulations for the season 2011/12 of the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Super Cup, UEFA Women’s Champions League and UEFA Futsal Cup, the regulations for the qualifying competition for the FIFA Futsal World Cup 2012, and the Anti-Doping regulations 2011.

The UEFA President also expressed the sincere thanks of the whole of the European footballfamily to Joseph Mifsud, for his 17-year involvement in the development and running of European football as a member and a Vice-President of the UEFA Executive Committee and of other UEFA Committees.

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The UEFA Executive Committee meeting will be followed by the XXXV Ordinary UEFA Congress, tomorrow Tuesday 22 March at the Grand Palais in Paris (see media release 018 for further details).

The next meeting of the UEFA Executive Committee is scheduled for 16/17 June in Nyon, Switzerland.

UEFA

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