ZURICH: CONCACAF was thwarted in its attempt to get an extra place at the World Cup when FIFA decided to avoid meddling with the number of qualifying places allocated to each continent for the 2014 tournament in Brazil. The confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football, had hoped for four places up for grabs but will have to make do with 3.5 after FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke said Thursday the slots would be distributed in exactly the same way as in 2006 and 2010. The only difference in the spread of the 32 finalists for 2014 World Cup could be a possible six representatives from South America as Brazil qualify automatically as hosts. Europe will keep its 13 places — considered too many by some observers — while Africa will have five, Asia 4.5, CONCACAF 3.5 and Oceania 0.5. South American will have 4.5 places, not including Brazil. FIFA announced that Canada — the only candidate after Zimbabwe pulled out — would host the women's World Cup in 2015 and the women's under-20 World Cup the year before. Turkey was chosen to host the under-20 World Cup in 2013 and New Zealand the same event two years later. The under-17 tournaments will be staged in United Arab Emirates in 2013 and Chile two years later. FIFA continued the trend of taking the game to new venues when it awarded the 2012 women's under-20 World Cup to Uzbekistan. FIFA, meanwhile, made a $631m profit from the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, according to accounts published Thursday.
