FIFA Congress

North America will host the 2026 World Cup after FIFA voters overwhelmingly opted for the financial and logistical certainty of a United States-led bid over a risky Moroccan proposal for the first 48-team tournament.

The football showpiece will return to the US for the first time since 1994 after gaining 134 votes, while Morocco got 65 at the FIFA Congress in Moscow on Wednesday.

An anonymous bomb threat was received at the Congress of FIFA, which is taking place in Zurich on Friday.

According to media reports, a local police spokeswoman confirmed that there has been a bomb threat against the FIFA Congress and officers have been dispatched.

FIFA also acknowledged receipt of the bomb threat, while journalists reported that they were asked to leave.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter demonstrated no intention to resign as the tensions surrounding the corruption scandal at the international football association are building up.

Blatter chaired an emergency meeting with the heads of the six continental confederations on Thursday as the political pressure over the corruption scandal at FIFA mounted.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter has asked Iran to end its ban on women watching football matches, describing the situation as intolerable.

"When I travelled to Iran in November 2013, I was not only confronted with huge popular enthusiasm from football but also a law forbidding women from attending football matches," he wrote in FIFA's weekly magazine.