Bolivia to take World Cup altitude row to UN

Bolivian president Evo Morales said on Saturday that the country’s battle to have their World Cup qualifiers played at altitude will be taken to the United Nations.

World football governing body FIFA has banned the South American team from staging qualifiers above 3,500m in La Paz but the Bolivians claim they are being discriminated against.

A furious Morales even condemned FIFA president Sepp Blatter as a ‘dictator’.

“Bolivia will bring an action for discrimination and marginalisation before the United Nations,” said Morales.

“It is an aggression, a provocation and an intimidation from the FIFA president against our country and against South America.

“We cannot tolerate these type of sanctions.”

FIFA has ordered the next batch of World Cup 2010 qualifying games against Chile and Paraguay in June to be moved away from La Paz claiming that matches at such altitude are detrimental to players’ health.