No hand up from FIFA
The Republic of Ireland will not be accommodated as a 33rd team in the World Cup finals this summer – and nor did the FAI ever seriously believe that they would.
Yesterday’s revelation by FIFA President Sepp Blatter that the FAI had asked for Ireland to be included in the finals – as compensation for the nature of France’s decisive goal in the World Cup play-off – might have grabbed plenty of headlines but, in proposing the idea at a meeting in Zurich last Friday, the FAI were conscious that they were making it more in hope than expectation, anxious that they should leave no stone unturned in the pursuit of justice.
