WOMEN'S WORLD CUP Columbus is among the six sites approved

The World Cup will open Sept. 20 in Columbus and Philadelphia.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
PARIS -- The six sites proposed by the U.S. Soccer Federation for this year's Women's World Cup were approved Saturday by soccer's governing body.
Approval was considered a formality following the June 12 announcement by the USSF that it wanted to play in Carson, Calif.; Columbus, Ohio; Foxboro, Mass.; Philadelphia; Portland, Ore.; and Washington.
China was supposed to hold the tournament but lost its role as host May 3 because of the SARS virus. On May 26, FIFA switched the 16-nation championship to the United States, which won the event as the host nation in 1999.
Opens in Columbus
The tournament will open Sept. 20 in Columbus and Philadelphia, and ends with the Oct. 12 final in Carson.
In other business, FIFA said players with more than one passport who are under 21 most likely will be allowed to change their national team.
Under the previous rule, once a player appeared in an official tournament for any national team, including youth teams with age limits, the player could not appear for any other nation, except in cases such as the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, which split into new nations.
FIFA's new rule allows a player to change countries once before 21, but only if the player held dual nationality at the time the player first appeared for a national team.
Must be ratified
The change must be ratified by the FIFA congress, which meets Oct. 19-20 in Qatar.
The executive committee also banned players from removing shirts during celebrations after goals, saying the objective was "maintaining discipline and order on the field of play."
It also approved the emergency committee's decision to suspend Antigua and Barbuda, and approved the emergency committee's decision to lift the suspension of Azerbaijan.
In addition, FIFA said nine people have been installed as interim leaders of Iraq's soccer association, with Hussein Sahid in charge. Sahid is a member of the executive committee of the Asian Football Confederation.
Staying at 32
South America won a chance to gain a fifth berth at the 2006 World Cup at the expense of Oceania, which again may not send any team at all.
After failing to muster support for its plan to expand the World Cup field by four nations to 36, South America's governing body withdrew its proposal Saturday.
The executive committee of soccer's world governing body then gave South America, which has four guaranteed spots, the chance to win the fifth in a playoff.
"Things are so clear and simple with 32 teams," FIFA president Sepp Blatter said. "Give two more here, two more there, sounds easy."
Big field
He said a 36-nation field was impractical "when you have to consider the details, the practical organization." The committee also said the field would not be increased for 2010.
The executive committee had voted Dec. 17 to give Oceania a guaranteed berth and take away South America's playoff spot. Saturday's vote to reverse that decision was 22-1, with Oceania dissenting and Blatter abstaining.
Ahongalu Fusimalohi of Tonga, Oceania's only executive committee member, said FIFA had made his region a "laughingstock."
"We're being pushed around as if we never did exist," he said. "If it was so right seven months ago, how can it be so wrong seven months later?"
Walked out in protest
Fusimalohi walked out of the meeting in protest along with Australia's Basil Scarsella, the president of the Oceania Football Confederation.
Scarsella, a nonvoting observer of the executive committee, called the matter a "politically driven decision that's got nothing to do with common sense or the development of football."
Blatter said the decision was made partly because of infighting among officials of Soccer Australia and the "poor performance" of New Zealand in the Confederations Cup. New Zealand, the Oceania champion, went 0-3 and was outscored 11-1.