WHILE Ireland’s forlorn attempts to be added to next summer’s World Cup as a 33rd team were derided by FIFA President Sepp Blatter yesterday, Giovanni Trapattoni robustly denied reports that his players revolted against his tactics on that stormy night in Paris.

It has been claimed that a delegation of senior stars went to the Italian before the second leg in France and urged him to adopt a positive approach as they chased a one-goal deficit and then repeated the calls in the dressing-room at half-time with the manager urging caution after Robbie Keane’s early goal restored aggregate parity.

On instruction from Trapattoni, the FAI issued a stern denial.

“The tactics are decided by Mr Trapattoni,” read the statement. “The improvements shown progressively during the World Cup qualification campaign against Georgia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Italy and France have happened because the players know their exact roles and have learnt from what Mr Trapattoni has told them.

“Each player knows his exact task on the pitch before every game and they have followed this to the letter. No player decides what to do on the pitch. Under Mr Trapattoni’s management, the players follow only what Mr Trapattoni has asked them to do.”

The bizarrely-worded missive was in tune with a day where the issue of Ireland’s World Cup exclusion returned to the global sports agenda when Sepp Blatter revealed that a delegation from the FAI – who met the FIFA President in Zurich last Friday – had requested a place in next summer’s finals as a 33rd team.

Speaking in South Africa to kick off a week of activities which includes an EGM of the Executive Committee tomorrow and features Friday’s finals draw, Blatter struggled to maintain a serious façade while telling a business conference of the developments.

“They were naturally absolutely unhappy at what has happened,” he said. “They know the match cannot be replayed. They have asked, very humbly ‘can't we be team No 33 at the World Cup?'

“They have asked for that, really,” he continued, drawing laughs from the audience. “I will bring it to the attention of the executive committee but if we do that, we will also have to bring in Costa Rica.”

The last named feel they were cheated out of a place in the finals after Uruguay progressed through their playoff meeting with the help of a questionable offside decision.

Officials at FAI HQ in Abbotstown were surprised by the manner in which Blatter made details of their meeting public. They dispute any insinuation that it was the purpose of their visit to Switzerland, privately conceding there is no prospect of such an unprecedented turnaround.

"A lot was discussed at the meeting and at one stage the FAI asked if Ireland could be accommodated into the World Cup 2010," said an FAI statement.

"Other suggestions were also made to mitigate against further occurrences of such incidents, including the use of additional goal line assistant referees for FIFA international matches, further use of video technology for matches at the highest level, stronger provisions to discourage players from engaging in such blatant breaches of the Laws of the Game and provisions to strengthen referee selection for such important matches."

Those issues are likely to be discussed at tomorrow's FIFA EGM with possible sanctions towards Thierry Henry and general incidents of cheating plus the future of knockout play-offs also on the agenda.

"To determine qualification by one match only, we have to look at that," said Blatter. "We have to take responsibility to make sure FIFA's World Cup in Africa will be played according to the rules of the game and the sprit of fair play.

"We have six months to show to the world that we have changed because of what has happened in the last (qualifying) matches of the World Cup. If we are not able to do so, we will put our papers under the desk and go home."

Irish Independent