Yes, I get it. Ireland lost to France. It wouldn’t bug me if they had fairly lost by that Gallas goal. But it wasn’t fair, Thierry Henry knocked the ball down with his hand which led directly to the goal. You can read the updates and past posts over here.
Well the president of football’s world governing body, Sepp Blatter, said that goal-line technology and extra referees would be considered for the South Africa finals. He also added, “I will bring it to the attention of the Executive Committee.” Basically he is saying the he will mention it to FIFA when they have an emergency meeting on Wednesday in South Africa, two days before the draw. There is no way that they will let Ireland just walk into the World Cup. FIFA is very cautious about their image on matters like this, but the most they will do is add a ref on the goal line at all times.
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…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 brought up a good point though, if Ireland believes they were wrongly ousted, than Costa Rica should get the same treatment – because of an offside goal from Uruguay; if they even discussed extra places in the Cup (which would make it even numbers still!)
Ireland is right to be upset over this, however nothing will come of it. I have learned to accept that. FIFA got their wish in France going to South Africa. We’ll keep you updated after the emergency meeting on Wednesday.
UPDATE: FIFA has denied Ireland’s plea. They will not be in the World Cup. And now they are investigating Thierry Henry’s handball to make people happy without actually doing anything.
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Tags: FIFA, France, Ireland, South Africa, Thierry Henry, World Cup 2010
