The organization that governs World Cup soccer has backed down from new rules that would have limited the online use of news photographs shot during soccer matches.

FIFA had proposed a two-hour embargo on photos taken during the World Cup, a serious limitation for web sites that cover sports. FIFA later reduced the embargo to one hour, then to immediately after the end of the match. The rules also banned publishing photographs shot in a sequence and limited the number of photographs that could be published online to five per half and two per extra time.

News agencies had to agree to the terms to get photo credentials to cover matches. The proposal would have benefited web sites and cell phone services that have licensing deals with FIFA to run live soccer coverage.

News organizations have been fighting the new rules since they first appeared last fall. The World Cup, played every 4 years, begins June 9 in Germany.

The World Association of Newspapers (WAN), a Paris-based federation of news organizations including the Newspaper Association of America, has been in talks with FIFA to try to get the rules dropped. WAN said it was representing the Associated Press, Getty Images, Reuters, Agence France-Presse and others.

Today, FIFA and WAN released a joint statement saying FIFA had agreed to drop all restrictions on digital publication of photos.

According to a statement, the two parties reached an agreement in a private meeting between FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter and WAN CEO Timothy Balding.

"I am satisfied that we have been able to amend the earlier position taken and thus recognize WAN's justified requirements," Blatter said in the statement. He also said he had invited WAN to nominated a representative to sit on the FIFA Media Committee.

Though the FIFA-WAN spat appears to be over, it is just the latest in a series of photo-related conflicts between news media and sports governing bodies. In the past few months in the U.S., NCAA schools have written cease-and-desist letters to photographers who posted their pictures of college athletes on the SportsShooter.com online portfolio site.

More recently, the LPGA imposed usage limits on news photos from women's golf events, a matter that has still not been resolved to the satisfaction of some editors. Two photos editors said today their companies are still in talks with the LPGA in hopes of an agreement.

Related link
FIFA/WAN statement

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