There are five South American teams - all in the quarter-finals - but they fear FIFA will remove their play-off spot, which Uruguay won, because hosts Brazil will qualify automatically.

Asian confederations chiefs are also worried Oceania will gain an automatic spot at their expense - New Zealand only qualified through a play-off against Bahrain.

Europe currently have 13 teams and the failures of England, France and Italy will not have done much for UEFA's bargaining power either.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter refused to be drawn on the issue, saying: "This will be a nice discussion to have in the future."

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Ken Bates and Sepp Blatter may seem strange bedfellows but both seem eye to eye on goal-line technology.

Blatter's justification for FIFA blocking technology in the past is that fans love to debate controversial incidents.

Now, just when he has agreed to re-consider, Bates is singing from the same hymn sheet.

The Leeds chairman said: "I still don't remain convinced. One of the great things about football is that referees get it wrong.

"People are given offside when they're not; penalties are given when they are not penalties. It has always been part of the fun.

"The only trouble is now there is so much money in the game we have got it out of proportion. I still have an open mind."

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An apparently psychic octopus has been predicting Germany's results with uncanny accuracy at a sea life centre in Oberhausen.

Octopus Paul has correctly predicted the winner in all four of Germany's matches so far and has picked them to beat Argentina in their quarter-final on Saturday.

The octopus plucked a mussel out of a glass with a Germany flag but ignored a similar glass with Argentina's flag.

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A newly-elected Conservative MP has tabled an early-day motion calling on the FA's board to all resign following England's hopeless performances in South Africa.

Rob Halfon, MP for Harlow, said: "It is time for the FA board to resign en masse. Sven-Goran Eriksson, Steve McClaren and Fabio Capello have all produced nothing but failure.

"We have great players, playing for some of the best clubs in the world. Yet for too long, the FA board have made the wrong decisions and judgements at crucial times. There have also been too many shenanigans at FA HQ. The FA board have failed the England national team. The buck stops with them. It's time for them to go."

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World Cup sponsors MTN have produced a very handy phrasebook to help visitors during their stay in South Africa.

Y'ello provides useful terms and phrases in each of the country's 11 official languages covering such topics as the weather, travel, eating out and shopping.

But there is one entry - "Ons het gewen" in Afrikaans, "Siphumelele" in Xhosa and "Siwinile" in Zulu - which was of little use to English visitors.

Each expression translates as "We won!".

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The Eastern Cape city of Port Elizabeth, which will host Friday's quarter-final clash between Holland and Brazil, was founded to house British settlers in 1820.

As a result, many of the place and street names have a colonial flavour.

However, one guest house close to the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium may not prosper because of its associations with football.

The Bon Accord shares its name with the team which was trounced 36-0 by Arbroath in a Scottish Cup tie back in 1885, still the record defeat suffered by a senior British team.