FIFA annuls decision to exclude Myanmar from 2018 World Cup qualifying

[News_Editor]

FIFA annuls decision to exclude Myanmar from 2018 World Cup qualifying

2011-11-07 20:43:28 GMT+7 (ICT)

ZURICH (BNO NEWS) -- The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) on Monday announced it will allow Myanmar to take part in the preliminary competition for the 2018 World Cup, despite an incident in July which prompted the exclusion.

The incident happened on July 28 during the second leg match between Myanmar and Oman as part of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifiers. The game was brought to a sudden halt by the referee in the 45+2 minute after local supporters hurled objects onto the field.

The score at the time of interruption stood at 2-0 for Oman, who had also won the first leg 2-0. The Bureau of the Organizing Committee of the FIFA World Cup confirmed that the result would be final, qualifying Omar for the next round of Asia's preliminary competition.

In September, as a result of the incident, the ruling body FIFA announced it had decided to exclude the Myanmar Football Federation from taking part in matches of the preliminary competition for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, which is to be held in Russia.

In addition to the exclusion, the Myanmar Football Federation was ordered by FIFA to pay a fine of 25,000 Swiss franc ($27,725). It was also ordered to pay the costs of the proceedings, which totaled 2,000 Swiss franc ($2,218).

But the Myanmar Football Federation appealed the decision and met with the FIFA Appeal Committee on Friday. The Committee announced on Monday that FIFA will partially uphold the appeal by annulling its decision to exclude Myanmar from the preliminary competition for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

"The Myanmar Football Federation will therefore be reintegrated into the preliminary competition," FIFA said in a statement. "The Myanmar Football Federation will now be required to play all their home matches in the preliminary competition for the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia on neutral ground in another country."

The fines ordered in September were upheld and FIFA warned the Myanmar Football Federation that it will consider further sanctions should similar incidents happen again.

Myanmar is also known as Burma.

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