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Republic of Ireland ask for extra 2010 World Cup place

The Republic players remonstrate with the referee after Gallas's goal

Fifa's Sepp Blatter has revealed the Republic of Ireland have requested a spot in the 2010 World Cup finals as an extra team after their play-off defeat.

The Republic lost to an extra-time goal against France when Thierry Henry handled the ball during the build-up.

"I will bring it to the attention of the Executive Committee," said Blatter.

The president of football's world governing body added that goal-line technology and extra referees would be considered for the South Africa finals.

The executive committee will hold an emergency meeting in Cape Town on Wednesday, two days ahead of the draw for the finals, to assess the idea of extra match officials.

If they recommend the proposal it will go before football's rule-making international board in Zurich in March for a final decision.

"It's possible we will make additional officials for the World Cup but we have to see if it is feasible or realistic," added Blatter. "Something has to be done in terms of match control.

"We have only one man on the field of play who shall intervene in this matter. He has two assistants for the time being, perhaps more in the future. He has to make an immediate decision.

"He has only two eyes. So match control is now is on the agenda. How shall we avoid such situations as we have seen in this very specific match?"

Regarding the Republic's case, Blatter added that Costa Rica, who also believe they were unfairly denied a place in the finals - this time because of an offside goal from Uruguay - would also have to be acknowledged if extra places are discussed.

The Football Association of Ireland released a statement, confirming Blatter had agreed to a meeting in Zurich last Friday, which lasted for 90 minutes.

"A lot was discussed at the meeting and at one stage the FAI asked if Ireland could be accommodated into the World Cup 2010," read the statement.

"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."

The Republic originally asked for the play-off to be replayed but that request was turned down by Fifa.

The man at the centre of the storm, former Arsenal striker Henry, released a statement two days after the infamous match in which he said a replay would have been "the fairest solution".

I read this on BBC this morning and I think it's pretty pathetic really. They need to just accept what happened and move on just like every other team when a decision goes against them. If this bid was accepted then where does it end? Does every team who just missed out in the group qualifying stages then also get a place as they were probably subjected to at least one wrong decision in a game?

yeah, this is pretty much being dragged out too long, im amazed FIFA are even considering this.

I hate FIFA, a lot can be done to solve such issues

They deserve a replay against France at the least.

Honestly, they have been robbed by a blind referee, sure, but this has gone too long. Sure, I would have loved for France to be forced to a rematch and be kicked out of the WC, but this is getting pathetic. Mistakes happen, refs can suck, everyone can get robbed, learn to accept it, but they seem like they're desperate clinging to the smallest thing possible.

I hope this issue leads to an improvement on rules enforcement, but I wish Ireland stopped doing this, it's making them look even worse than Hansson

I can see why Ireland are so into this. Apparently World cup qualification would have added £1billion to their economy. But at the end of the day rules are rules; And the referee's decision is final in football, whatever mistake he has made.

A 33rd spot will be rejected. The only competition I can recall where someone hasn't qualified but had an extra spot added for them is the champions league a few years back. That was because Liverpool had won it the previous year but had not qualified to protect their title. It was successful, but that was the one successful case amongst dozens of similar cases that were unsuccessful.

I would imagine that the Liverpool case would be cited, but I doubt it wouldn't do any good.

Ireland need to accept it and get on with life I'm afraid.

lol, u mean million instead of billion I hope.

Anyway, what really happened in the match? Somone xplain. This article is worthless because it at one hand talks about an over-time goal, at the othe rhand  talks about the need for extra referees. If the problem only was the goal being overtime that's due to ref ignorance, you dont need extra pairs of eyes for that.

Bleh, I meant £100 million that Ireland have lost. It's France who would have lost a billion (Source). Sorry I got it the wrong way round.

What happened was Thierry Henry controlled the ball with his hand in the penalty box and it resulted in a goal. It was blatantly a hand ball, but the goal was given. If that goal wasn't given the match would have likely gone to penalties.

Silly!
Its gone on too long, while a poor show, it is France who should be in the finals.