Posted on: Sunday, June 29, 2003

SPORTS WIRE
World Cup will remain at 32 teams

Advertiser News Services

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 yesterday at the meeting in Paris.

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."

He said a 36-nation field was impractical "when you have to consider the details, the practical organization."

The executive committee had voted Dec. 17 to give Oceania a guaranteed berth and take away South America's playoff spot. Yesterday's vote to reverse that decision was 22-1, with the Pacific islands' rep 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?"

In the past, the winner of Oceania qualifying always met a team from another continent in a home-and-home playoff, and no team from Oceania has played in the World Cup since New Zealand in 1982.

• Women's Cup sites set: The six sites proposed by the U.S. Soccer Federation for this year's Women's World Cup were approved yesterday by FIFA, 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.

The tournament opens Sept. 20 in Columbus and Philadelphia, and ends with the Oct. 12 final in Carson.

AUTO RACING

• Dixon wins IRL race: Scott Dixon turned his first start at Richmond International Raceway into the most dominant performance in IRL history, leading all 206 laps before rain stopped last night's race in Richmond, Va.

Dixon became the first driver in IRL history to lead from start to finish. The SunTrust Indy Challenge ended 44 laps short of the scheduled 250.

It was Dixon's third victory in seven races as he beat out Helio Castroneves and Gil de Ferran.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

• Teammates questioned: Police have questioned Baylor University basketball players in the disappearance of a teammate, who authorities fear might be a victim of homicide.

Patrick Dennehy hasn't been heard from in more than two weeks and his SUV turned up abandoned in a parking lot last week in Virginia with its license plates missing.

Investigators believe the 6-foot-10, 230-pound center might have been killed in the Waco area, though authorities wouldn't say what led them to that conclusion.

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• Steve Rosenbloom, Chicago Tribune columnist, after learning that New Jersey Devils forward Jim McKenzie had let his kids take the Stanley Cup to elementary school:

"Jeez, the Devils even win show-and-tell."