FIFA say 2,500 metres altitude limit still in place

ASUNCION, June 15 (Reuters) FIFA said today that its recently imposed ban on playing international matches at more than 2,500 metres above sea level remained in effect and had not been lifted.

Bolivian doctor Ivo Eterovic, a member of the South American Football Confederation (CSF) medical committee told reporters yesterday after a committee meeting that FIFA had agreed to lift the ban, saying matches could be played at 2,800 metres but not higher than 3,000 metres.

However a FIFA spokesman denied today that any such decision had been taken.

''The only body that can change the ruling is the executive committee who imposed it in the first place and the executive committee do not meet again until June 27 so the ruling remains in place,'' the spokesman told Reuters.

FIFA surprised the South American nations by announcing the 2,500-metre limit on May 27.

The decision caused an outcry in some of the Andean nations, where the matter has become a major political issue.

Bolivia president Evo Morales has led the campaign to have the ruling overturned and on Tuesday took part in a kickabout with some of his aides on a mountain at nearly 6,000 metres above sea level.

The CSF's executive committee was due to meet today to discuss the issue.

Earlier this year, Brazilian club Flamengo issued a furious protest after playing a South American Libertadores Cup match at nearly 4,000 metres above sea level against Real Potosi in Bolivia.

Potosi directors rejected the protest and said they did not want to play in Rio de Janeiro because of the ''the heat and the mosquitoes''.

Brazil's first defeat in a World Cup qualifier was away to Bolivia in La Paz in 1993.

If matches were allowed at 3,000 metres they could be played in Quito and Bogota, the capitals of Ecuador and Colombia respectively. However, it would still mean that La Paz in Bolivia, situated at 3,600 metres, was out of bounds.

REUTERS TB KP1939