FIFA president Sepp Blatter has been awarded damages for defamatory statements made against him, while three national associations have had cash grants suspended, world soccer's governing body said on Wednesday.

Farah Addo, president of the Somali Football Federation, was banned from all activities in football in January, and has been ordered to pay Blatter 10,000 Swiss francs ($7,519) compensation and assume costs for the case at Court of Meilen in Switzerland.

The sanction on Addo related to comments he made in February 2002 about irregular financial practices he claimed were intended to assist the election of Blatter to the FIFA president in 1998.

Addo had made accusations against Executive Committee member Mohamed Bin Hammam, of Qatar, and questioned the integrity of Blatter, but had been unable to substantiate his claims.

The Court of Meilen upheld the injunction prohibiting Addo from making further statements against Blatter.

The Somali Football Federation is one of three associations to have payments from FIFA's Financial Assistance Programme (FAP) stopped.

The Burundi and Puerto Rico federations were also unable to prove "documentation to substantiate the use of part of the funds they had received", FIFA said.

A FIFA audit in the finances of the Somali federation in 2001 was unable to find evidence to support the use of 84 percent of the funding provided.

In Burundi's case $114,000 is unaccounted for over the period 2000-2002, while FIFA said Puerto Rico's funding had been stopped because of a lack of clarification on payments and because of "the instability currently prevailing within the association".

FIFA added that a further three associations -- Nepal, Vietnam and Chile -- have been given until April to provide documentation to clarify the use of FAP payments made to them.

The FAP was created in 1999 and each national association receives $1 million during a four-year cycle.