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FIFA: Ireland can't be extra World Cup team

Country filed petition for extra berth in wake of Thierry hand ball dispute

JOSEP LAGO / AFP/Getty Images
A cameraman films the poster of French football player Thierry Henry outside FC Barcelona's Joan Gamper Sports Center near Barcelona on Friday.
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updated 9:26 a.m. ET Dec. 1, 2009

CAPE TOWN, South Africa - FIFA says Ireland will not be invited to the World Cup as a 33rd team despite the hand ball by Thierry Henry that helped France eliminate the Irish in a playoff.

FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke said it was “impossible” to change the structure of the tournament. He said it would open FIFA to a host of other complaints of teams that felt they were cheated during qualifying.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter said Monday that the Irish had written to soccer’s world governing body asking to be let into the 2010 tournament in South Africa because of Henry’s hand ball.

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