France yesterday learned they were not among the top seeds for the World Cup, although FIFA insisted the decision had nothing to do with the Thierry Henry handball incident.
The French delegation were shocked when FIFA secretary-general Jerome Valcke announced that the Netherlands would fill the remaining spot that had been in doubt.
French optimism had been based on the way the seeds had been decided four years ago ahead of the World Cup in Germany.
PHOTO: EPA
On that occasion, the latest FIFA rankings at that time had been taken into consideration along with performances in the two previous World Cups.
This time, however, Valcke said that the seeding system was purely based on the FIFA world rankings in October.
In those, France were in ninth place, although one place ahead of them were Croatia who failed to qualify for the finals.
But with hosts South Africa already assured to be among the seeds, only seven places were available and France lost out on that criteria. Had it also been based on the two previous World Cups they would have been seeded.
France now face the prospect of being drawn with the likes of Brazil, Argentina, Germany or Italy in the group stages.
Blatter denied that France had been relegated from the seeds as a punishment for the controversial way they qualified, with Thierry Henry’s handball putting them through at the expense of Ireland.
“In no way was it a sanction against France. It had nothing to do with the Ireland game,” Blatter said.
To rub salt into French wounds, had FIFA gone by last month’s rankings instead of the October ones, they would have been seeded ahead of England.
Meanwhile, Irish soccer chiefs yesterday criticized Blatter for making public details of their request for a “33rd” place at the World Cup in the wake of the handball row.
In a statement, the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) said it had asked for the request to be taken off the agenda for yesterday’s scheduled meeting of FIFA’s executive committee in Cape Town.
“The FAI has already clarified that this matter was peripheral, was not raised in any of its formal written submissions to FIFA, and was explored only fleetingly as part of a wide-ranging 90-minute discussion with that body,” it said.
“Regrettably, the matter appears to have been singled out in public by Mr Blatter despite his assurances that the meeting would remain private,” the statement said.
Their anger was underlined by Ireland assistant manager, Liam Brady, who branded the FIFA supremo’s handling of the fallout from the Henry affair “an embarrassment.”
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