JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - All the African stadiums under threat in recent months of being barred from hosting World Cup qualifying matches have been passed after a second round of FIFA inspections, world football's governing body said on Friday.
Stadiums in Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Namibia, Sierra Leone, Swaziland and Zambia will be allowed to host matches in the next few weeks after having upgrades or starting improvements demanded by FIFA.
But football's ruling body has warned it might clamp down again if the improvements ordered are not in place by the start of the second phase of group qualifiers in November.
"In order to play 2010 World Cup qualifiers in stadiums at the level of such a competition, FIFA took the initiative to inspect several stadiums in Africa in the past months," a FIFA spokesman said on Friday.
"Based on the inspections and thanks to the works already realised since then, FIFA has authorised that these stadiums be used for the preliminary competition matches of the 2010 World Cup (being hosted by South Africa).
"However, in most cases, FIFA has decided that the present authorisation is conditioned by the mandatory completion of some works by the end of November."
Many African countries were under the threat of having to move their upcoming home matches to neutral venues but now only Lesotho and Togo are playing home matches outside their borders.
Lesotho have moved matches to Bloemfontein in neighbouring South Africa because of renovations to their only stadium.
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