Two weeks on, why don't Ireland just give it up? Martin Lipton's big tea-time read

By Martin Lipton in Laptop with Martin Lipton

Published 16:30 30/11/09

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For the love of everything that matters, Ireland. Can't you just give it up?

The news that the FAI has asked FIFA to grant them a 33rd berth at next summer's World Cup Finals must rank up there with the most ludicrous pieces of bureaucratic nonsense the game has ever seen.

Yes, Giovanni Trappatoni and his players have every right to feel they were robbed by Thierry Henry and his act of conscience-free juggling.

But that is what can happen.

The referee's decision, even if wrong, is final. There can be no changing it now, no equivocation. And certainly no additional teams added to the 32 who have earned their places at the greatest show on earth.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter knows that  Ireland's appeal will be turned down when the game's ruling executive committee sit down for their emergency session in Cape Town on Wednesday.

Letting the world know about it was the Swiss technocrat's way of softening the inevitable blow.

But do not be surprised to see Blatter and the ex-co make an example of Henry, perhaps banning him for one or two matches, in a statement that will tell everybody travelling to South Africa that they will be punished if they try to cheat next summer.

Ireland's frustrations are utterly understandable, but utterly futile.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, something that FIFA can use to change the face of football will be enacted tomorrow - the Treaty of Lisbon.

Blatter, backed by the IOC and other international sports bodies, believes the new European Union constitution, granting specificity (in layman's terms, partial exemption) to EU law, will give him the chance to introduce his planned six plus five rule rationing the number of foreign players any club side can field.

FIFA's position is summed up by the line: "It is about protecting sport's autonomy on the one side, and safeguarding the integrity of sporting competitions on the other side."

For those who don't see where that is coming from, think six plus five, the right of football to police itself and impose its own penalties, the the death-knell for any idea of invitation-only European Super Leagues, with the concept of promotion and relegation one which FIFA  holds dear.

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