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Football's world governing body is understood to have appointed an agency to work on the project.

It is keen to use the image of the World Cup trophy itself to offer further opportunities for sponsorship and commercial initiatives.

FIFA intends to standardise the branding surrounding the World Cup to ensure the power of the event is not lost as the imagery changes between host countries.

The governing body said it was looking to 'improve and optimise the positioning of its assets', but declined to confirm the agency chosen for the branding task.

FIFA is also among a consortium of football's governing bodies considering a campaign to discourage hooliganism. A decision on the initiative will be made based on the results of research into violence and crowd safety at Euro 2004 (Marketing, 23 June).