Sepp Blatter, FIFA President, has called for more Africa nations at the world cup finals.

According to him, the confederation with the most member associations (54) is woefully under-represented at the World Cup with just five places. As long as this remains the case, African sides may never win an intercontinental trophy, regardless of progress on the playing side," he said.

"This flawed state of affairs must be rectified. At the end of the day, an equal chance for all is the paramount imperative of elite sport."

Blatter wrote in an article looking at the future of the sport, he said “From a purely sporting perspective, I would like to see globalization finally taken seriously, and the African and Asian national associations accorded the status they deserve at the FIFA World Cup’’

It cannot be that the European and South American confederations lay claim to the majority of the berths at the World Cup (18 or 19 teams), because taken together they account for significantly fewer member associations (63) than Africa and Asia (100)’’.

According to him, Europe will have 13 of the 32 places on offer in Brazil next year, while South America has four plus the possibility of another via a playoff with fifth-best Asian side (Uruguay vs. Jordan). Africa has five berths, while CONCACAF has three plus a playoff with the top Oceania team (Mexico vs. New Zealand).

"The World Cup is the biggest expression of national team competitions - races, people from different parts of the globe, people from every continent. And the black players are very, very important for that’’ he added.