Zurich - Football's governing body FIFA on Wednesday announced that they had fined the football association of Ivory Coast after 22 fans died during a World Cup qualifying match between the Ivory Coast and Malawi in March. In a statement released in Zurich, FIFA said that the organization's disciplinary committee had finalized an investigation into the tragedy outside the Felix Houphouet-Boigny Stadium in Abidjan.
"Due to the complexity of the case and the numerous parties involved in the match organisation and operations, members of the Ivorian Football Association, police and other local and national organisations were interviewed."
FIFA said the Ivorian football association had been fined 50,000 Swiss Francs (46,800 Dollars) and had been told that they have to apply a number of measures introduced to prevent a recurrence.
"For the FIFA World Cup qualifier against Burkina Faso in Abidjan on 5 September 2009, the capacity of the stadium will be restricted to 20,000 spectators, including guests.
"Externally, a mandatory traffic control cordon will be established at least one kilometre away from the stadium itself, and a spectator control cordon will be established between 100 and 200 meters from the stadium in order to filter the access of spectators.
"The total capacity of the stadium (34,600) will only be allowed in subsequent matches if the above-mentioned measures are applied for each match.
"All future matches will not be allowed to kick-off until the designated FIFA Security Officer is satisfied with all aspects of stadium safety and security."
The Ivory Coast football association has also been warned that any future incident would lead to more severe sanctions.
The world body said that they had decided to donate 100,000 Francs to the victims of the tragedy.
