For once, the World Association of Newspapers does some good: Footballl/soccer governing body FIFA has made a u-turn on its policy for news sites to use game images online. Starting with this year’s World Cup in Germany, online publishers will be able to use images from any World Cup matches, following FIFA’s decision to remove restrictions.

WAN release: In order to respect contractual obligations to rights holders, FIFA had originally limited the number of photographs that could be published on the web and required that they should only be published two hours after games ended. WAN and the coalition of news agencies had opposed the restrictions on the grounds that they interfered with media freedom to report.

Related:

—Journalism Group Meets With Fifa Over Online Media Rights For World Cup ‘06

—News Sites Cry Foul On World Cup Restrictions