Sepp Blatter, president of football's world governing body, said even former Football Association chairman Geoff Thompson - now a FIFA vice-president - was in opposition to the `39th step'.

The issue was raised only briefly at today's committee meeting in Zurich but all members opposed it.

Blatter said after the meeting: "This idea for the Premier League to play a 39th round outside country does not work.

"They would be playing 12 hours away west and east and 24 hours difference in the south.

"Even the former chairman of the FA, Mr Geoff Thompson, said we should oppose it."

Meanwhile, Blatter has insisted he will wait until the outcome of a corruption court case before commenting on allegations that a senior football figure received bribes.

Nicolas Leoz, the president of South American football and a member of FIFA's executive committee, has been named in court documents in the case in Zug, Switzerland, as having been paid #65,000 in backhanders by officials from FIFA's former marketing agency ISL.

Six ISL employees face charges but neither Leoz nor any other FIFA official is in the dock.

Blatter said: "We are waiting for the judgement at the end of the case.

"Let us wait and see what justice says and then we will have a look at that.

"It is a case in progress and it would be bad for me to intervene. I will make all comments when the case is closed.

"I have briefly informed my colleagues of what is happening in Zug this week.

"Neither members of FIFA committees nor administration were charged in these proceedings.

"It is up to us to wait for the ruling. ISL is not a topic for the executive committee it is a matter for Zug."

Prosecutors say around $9million was paid in bribes to sporting officials though one of the trial judges suggested the total figure could be as high as $65million according to the testimony of one defendant.

Leoz, 79, did not attend today's executive committee meeting on the grounds of ill health though he was at FIFA's headquarters yesterday.

Blatter also announced that the decision to scrap trials of goal-line technology had been given full backing by the world governing body's football and technical committees.

The International FA Board controversially decided last weekend to freeze any more experiments in favour of trialling a system put forward by UEFA president Michel Platini of having two extra assistant referees behind the goal-line.

The Premier League were furious at the decision with chairman Sir Dave Richards accusing Platini at the meeting of ``killing football''. The league had spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on developing the Hawkeye system.

But Blatter said: "Both the football committee, chaired by Franz Beckenbauer, and the technical committee supported the International FA Board.

"They said why should we resort to really complicated goal-line technology such as the microchip in the ball that works in 95% of the cases but not 100% reliability, or the famous Hawkeye which is appropriate for tennis as the players can stop the game to challenge the decision."

Blatter also said he would issue a personal request to clubs to release over-age players for the Olympic football tournament in Beijing this summer even though they were not forced to.

He added: "We cannot oblige the clubs to release these over-age players. But as FIFA president I would ask the clubs to abide by the Olympic spirit and release these players so they can play in the Olympic Games."

Blatter also announced he and Platini will visit Brussels next month to push his idea of introducing a rule where teams can only have a maximum of five foreigners.

He added: "The executive committee has unanimously stated this is a positive solution but we do not want to clash with European Union laws concerning free movement of workers.

"We will meet in Brussels on April 8 and 9 to speak to people from the Commission and European Parliament."