Chaired by FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter, the FIFA Executive Committee convened yesterday in Budapest ahead of the 62nd FIFA Congress to be held in Hungary's capital on 24 and 25 May.

Regarding the governance reform road map, the Executive Committee took another major step with the appointment of Mr Domenico Scala (Italy/Switzerland) as the independent chairman of the Audit and Compliance Committee. Mr Scala had been proposed by the Independent Governance Committee (IGC). This appointment will be submitted to the Congress for ratification.

The respective heads of FIFA, the Local Organising Committee and the Brazilian government as represented by the Ministry of Sport today successfully concluded the first joint summit on preparations for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Zurich. "Today was a historic day at the Home of FIFA in Zurich. This summit represented a strong signal from the Brazilian government that it is fully committed to our partnership and shared responsibility to stage the most successful FIFA World Cup ever. We have today laid the foundations for achieving our joint goal in an atmosphere of mutual cooperation and trust," explained FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter, who opened and closed the meeting.

During more than five hours of constructive discussions and open dialogue, the delegations of FIFA (headed by FIFA Secretary General Jérôme Valcke, FIFA Executive Committee member Marco Polo Del Nero and various directors), the 2014 LOC (represented by chairman José Maria Marin, Ronaldo and Bebeto) and the Brazilian government (led by Sports Minister Aldo Rebelo, Executive Secretary Luis Fernandes and ministry office chief Luís Paulino) plotted a detailed road map with concrete measures aimed at addressing the challenges identified to ensure efficient preparations. These measures drew on in-depth reports drawn up by the technical teams of the Brazilian government, FIFA and the LOC to analyse the status of the preparations, ranging from stadiums to general infrastructure.

The official Host Cities for the FIFA Women's World Cup Canada 2015 were announced at a media conference held on Parliament Hill in Ottawa (Canada) today in the presence of the Honourable Bal Gosal, Minister of State (Sport), FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter and Canadian Soccer Association President Dr Dominique Maestracci. The six official Host Cities named today are: Edmonton, Alberta; Moncton, New Brunswick; Montreal, Quebec; Ottawa, Ontario; Vancouver, British Columbia; and Winnipeg, Manitoba.

The Women's World Cup – the largest single sports event for women in the world – will be the first single sport event in Canada to be held from coast to coast.

On 3rd March 2012, the International Football Association Board (IFAB) approved two companies - Hawk-Eye and GoalRef - to take part in the second phase of Goal Line Technology (GLT) testing.

Between 10 May 2012 and the beginning of June, EMPA (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology) will test both systems with the following aim: to rigorously assess the reliability and accuracy of each system, as well as how robust the technology is.

The IFAB have confirmed the second test phase will be comprised of four different elements:

Following today's inaugural board meeting at SAFA House in Johannesburg, the 2010 FIFA World Cup Legacy Trust is now in operation.

The Legacy Trust, part of FIFA's pledge to ensure that South Africans will continue to reap the benefits of hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup, will support a wide range of public initiatives in the areas of football development, education, health and humanitarian activity, using the game as a tool in South Africa. Application forms will be available on www.safa.net as well as at SAFA House from 1 June 2012. All submissions will be reviewed by an expert evaluation panel and will be subject to approval by the trustees on a yearly basis. The first projects will be approved by the end of 2012.

Twenty-four matches have been taken into account for the April edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking, three-quarters of which were played at the AFC Challenge Cup. Asian representatives Turkmenistan (142nd, up 24) and Korea DPR (86th, up 25) were the month's strongest teams, each topping their group and sailing through to the final of the AFC Challenge Cup unbeaten. Thanks to a late goal in the 87th minute, Korea DPR triumphed 2-1 and are thus through to the AFC Asian Cup 2015 in Australia.

In the leading pack, the Netherlands (4th, down 2) slipped out of the top three for the first time since June 2010. Climbers Germany (2nd, up 1) and Uruguay (3rd, up 1) are now the closest challengers to leaders Spain (1st, unchanged). The third-place ranking of La Celeste is the country's highest ever in its long and successful football history.

Chaired by FIFA President Blatter, the FIFA Executive Committee convened at the Home of FIFA in Zurich on 29 and 30 March for its first meeting of the year and agreed to major reforms of its governance, in particular relating to ethics, audit and compliance. The chairmen of the Task Force Ethics Committee, Claudio Sulser (Switzerland), the Task Force Revision of Statutes, Dr Theo Zwanziger (Germany), the Task Force Transparency & Compliance, Frank Van Hattum (New Zealand FA) as well as of the Independent Governance Committee (IGC), Prof. Mark Pieth (Switzerland), presented their reports and proposals to the Executive Committee members.

Subsequently, the FIFA Executive Committee agreed on proposals to be submitted to the FIFA Congress. The FIFA Legal Committee has now been tasked with drafting the appropriate legal wording for these proposals so that they can be put on the Congress agenda, which has to be completed one month before the Congress convenes in Budapest (Hungary) on 24 and 25 May 2012.

The Organising Committee for the FIFA World Cup convened in Zurich today, 28 March, for its first meeting in its new composition to focus on the 2014 edition. FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter, who opened the meeting, particularly welcomed the new chairman of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Local Organising Committee, José Maria Marin, and the newly appointed FIFA Executive Committee member from Brazil, Marco Polo del Nero. To underline the significance of the FIFA World Cup for world football's governing body, the complete FIFA Executive Committee is now, for the first time, part of this decision-making forum which is responsible for monitoring and organising each edition of FIFA's flagship event.

"After the re-confirmation received from President Dilma Rousseff and the Brazilian government on the fulfilment of all guarantees, we are confident that despite the many tasks still to be completed by all of us, Brazil will stage an exceptional FIFA World Cup in 2014," said the FIFA President.

Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff and FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter today conducted a very constructive meeting in Brasilia to discuss preparations for the FIFA Confederations Cup 2013 and the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

2014 FIFA World Cup Ambassador Pelé, LOC Board of Administration Member Ronaldo and Sports Minister Aldo Rebelo also attended the meeting at the Palacio Planalto. President Dilma Rousseff reassured the FIFA President that all commitments made by the Brazilian government in the form of government guarantees - signed by at that time President Lula in 2007 - will be fulfilled.

A total of 111 matches have been played since the last edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola Women's World Ranking. In addition to a whole host of qualifying matches for continental competitions and the 2012 Olympics in London, two prestigious friendly tournaments took place in early March. The Algarve Cup in Portugal saw Germany make amends for their early exit from last year's FIFA Women's World Cup by defeating Japan in the final to lift the cup for the second time.

The Cyprus Women's Cup, which was played at the same time as the event in Portugal, was also the setting for some matches of high quality. Nevertheless, neither tournament has caused major changes in the top ten. The USA still lead the way at the top but Germany have reduced the gap from five points to just three. World champions Japan sit comfortably in third place, meanwhile, and have slightly stretched their lead over Brazil, who have not been in action in the last three months. France are still in sixth place, but they have made up more than half of the points that separated them from Sweden.