Republic's 33rd team proposal thrown out by Fifa as Brady brands Blatter 'a loose cannon'

Published on Tuesday 1 December 2009 21:34

FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke confirmed last night that the Republic of Ireland will not be given a place at next year's World Cup in South Africa.

The Football Association of Ireland had appealed to the world governing body to let them in as the 33rd team after Thierry Henry's handball helped France edge their qualifying play-off last month.

"We have to be clear that Ireland will not be invited to play at the 2010 World Cup," said Valcke at a news conference. "It's impossible. There is no hope that there will be more than 32 teams at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa."

Fifa's executive committee are holding an emergency meeting today in Cape Town where the matter will be discussed but Valcke's comments have dashed any faint hopes the Irish may have been harbouring.

Meanwhile, Liam Brady has branded Fifa president Sepp Blatter "a loose cannon" over his handling of their audacious appeal.

"He (Blatter] is a bit of a loose cannon," said Brady. "He's an embarrassment to Fifa. We asked that to see what Fifa's reaction was going to be. I think when we asked for that we knew there was very little chance of that happening.

"We asked because we wanted to have them respond in a measured way, and see what they had to say. After all Mr Blatter was responsible for the (match] official. He didn't say anything about the appalling mistake the official made to miss a blatant handball."

Brady said the FAI had expected Fifa to consider the '33rd team' request in private. And the former Republic midfielder was shocked when Blatter told a news conference the FAI's appeal had been lodged with Fifa.

"I'm afraid Mr Blatter is a law unto himself," Brady said. "I thought it was very disrespectful how he presented this fact. He's currently ignored most of the controversial things that went on that evening. He never had anything to say about that at all, like Henry's behaviour after scoring the goal and how that stands within his campaign to have fair play within the game.

"Henry celebrates as if he's done nothing wrong. Is that fair play? Hardly. But Mr Blatter chose to talk about the request to be considered as the 33rd team."

Blatter had set the tone for today's meeting by saying they would "also have to bring in Costa Rica" – who were denied a place in South Africa by an offside goal scored by Uruguay in their play-off. Adding additional teams would also throw tomorrow's finals draw into complete chaos as it would affect the whole structure of the tournament.

Meanwhile, New Zealand captain Ryan Nelsen believes the play-off system for World Cup qualification should be scrapped. Nelsen and his team-mates profited from the play-offs last month after sealing their place in South Africa with a 1-0 win over Bahrain.

The Kiwis won the Oceania qualifying group by seven points, but then had to wait 11 months to play an intercontinental play-off against Bahrain, who finished fifth in Asian qualifying.

The play-off system looks set to come under intense scrutiny by Fifa after the Henry incident and Nelsen is all for changes to be made. "I never have been a big fan of them (the play-offs]" Nelsen said. "There is so much on the line for one or two games and in the end, it generally falls into one situation where it's a handball or something like that.

"Over a league or a table, generally one instance like that doesn't affect the outcome.

"We would love to have that scenario and obviously a team like Ireland would as well."