FIFA have declared the result of Saturday's Asian World Cup qualifying play-off between Uzbekistan and Bahrain void and ordered a replay following a refereeing blunder.

Soccer's governing body ruled yesterday that Japanese referee Toshimitsu Yoshida made a "technical error" in disallowing an Uzbekistan penalty and then awarding Bahrain a free-kick instead of ordering it to be retaken.

Uzbekistan's 1-0 home victory has been wiped out and today's second leg in Bahrain has been postponed. The tie will instead be played on October 8 and 12. The decision was approved by Lennart Johansson, chairman of the 2006 World Cup organising committee.

The winners of the tie will play the fourth-placed team from the CONCACAF region over two legs for a place at next year's World Cup in Germany. Japan, South Korea, Iran and Saudi Arabia have already secured the four automatic Asian spots.

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