Ireland demand 33rd spot at World Cup
Ireland request spot at 2010 World Cup as extra team after being denied place in final 32 by Thierry Henry handball
Also In The News
|
By Darren Estwick. |  |
Monday, 30, Nov 2009 01:51
By Matthew Champion.
Ireland have officially requested a spot at the 2010 World Cup as an extra team after being denied a place in the final 32 by Thierry Henry's infamous handball.
The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) confirmed it had asked Fifa president Sepp Blatter to be included as the 33rd team in South Africa next year.
The Irish missed out on qualification when Henry blatantly handballed before setting up William Gallas to score in the second-leg of their playoff.
The FAI and Blatter confirmed 90 minutes worth of talks had taken place before Fifa's extraordinary general meeting on Wednesday in Cape Town.
"A lot was discussed at the meeting and at one stage the FAI asked if Ireland could be accommodated into the World Cup 2010," an FAI statement said.
"Other suggestions were also made to mitigate against further occurrences of such incidents, including the use of additional goal-line assistant referees for Fifa international matches, further use of video technology for matches at the highest level, stronger provisions to discourage players from engaging in such blatant breaches of the laws of the game and provisions to strengthen referee selection for such important matches."
Blatter said he would present the Irish request to Fifa's executive committee but warned any inclusion of Ireland in the finals would mean Costa Rica - who complained about an offside goal Uruguay scored in their playoff win - being given the same considerations.
"We received a delegation from Ireland and they were naturally absolutely unhappy at what has happened," Blatter said.
"They know the match cannot be replayed and the decision of the referee is final.
"Naturally they have not asked for any sanctions to be given to any player or the referee, but they have asked, very humbly, 'can't we be team number 33 at the World Cup? They have asked for that, really.
"I will bring it to the attention of the executive committee but if we do that, we will also have to bring in Costa Rica."