ZURICH: The two women co-opted on the FIFA executive committee last year will stay on for a further 12 months until next year’s election congress writes KEIR RADNEDGE.

President Sepp Blatter resolved uncertainty over the status of Australia’s Moya Dodd and Turcs and Caicos’ Sonie Bien-Aime after this week’s meeting of the executive committee.

One of the most visible features of the reform process launched in 2011 was the creation of a post for a woman on the exco. Lydia Nsekera of Burundi was co-opted in 2012 and then voted on last when her ‘sisters’ were co-opted.

A co-opted position lasts only a year but a resolutiom was reached during discussion of a report from the women’s football task force which Dodd happens to chair.

Blatter said: “We have taken the decision, after hearing a report from the task force for women’s football from Ms Moya Dodd, that the two co-opted ladies in the FIFA executive committee will be co-oted for one year more – assuming Congress in June is in agreement.

“Then, in 2005, we will take a final decision about the participation of a number of ladies in the FIFA executve committee in future, which is perhaps not so easy [to resolve].”

In other issues:

* Blatter welcomed the first formal home international played by Kosovo against a FIFA member national team, Haiti;

* the reform issues of age limit and term limits were referred to congress in Sao Paulo in June;

* a record financial report was approved for 2013;

* significant progress was expected in the next week from World Cup problem venues of Sao Paulo and Porto Alegre; and

* Blatter reiterated FIFA’s opposition to any form of technology on the pitch apart from goal-line systems; TV evidence could be used to review disciplinary issues;

* The confused situation over two Crimea clubs who play in the Ukraine league had been referred for consideration to the Russian and Ukraine national associations.

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