The agreement came after a private meeting between the FIFA President,
Joseph S. Blatter, and the Chief Executive Officer of WAN, Timothy Balding,
who was also representing a coalition of leading news agencies, including
Agence France-Presse, Associated Press, Reuters, Getty Images, DPA and EPA.

Mr Blatter said : ³Our talks were constructive and reflected FIFA¹s intent
to come to a mutually beneficial solution. Today, almost all print media of
relevance have their own web edition and reader preferences increasingly
underline a shift in consumer habits to access topical information.²

³We understand that the publication of images and text must be treated with
the same approach for the sake of maintaining a transparent information
management policy that respects the Freedom of the Press.²

³I am satisfied that we have been able to amend the earlier position taken
and thus to recognise WAN¹s justified requirements.²

³I look forward to an open and ongoing dialogue in the future. In order to
avoid future misunderstandings, I have invited WAN to delegate a Member to
the FIFA Media Committee where relevant matters pertaining to media
relations are discussed openly and constructively².

Timothy Balding said: "WAN and the world press community warmly welcome this
wise and enlightened decision by Mr Blatter, which will benefit tens of
millions of readers of newspaper web sites world-wide.

"In eliminating limits on the number of pictures that can be posted on
Internet sites and in permitting their free publication during the course of
World Cup matches, FIFA is upholding the traditional values of the free
press and preserving the full free flow of information to the media and
their audiences", he added.

"We acknowledge that this has not been an easy decision for FIFA to take,
which is all the more reason for us to be delighted that a common position
has now been found".

In order to respect contractual obligations to rights holders, FIFA had
originally limited the number of photographs that could be published on the
web and required that they should only be published two hours after games
ended. WAN and the coalition of news agencies had opposed the restrictions
on the grounds that they interfered with media freedom to report.