FIFA has nixed the idea of adding extra referees for next year's World Cup. Pressure to add more referees and/or video replays has mounted since the incident in the France-Ireland qualifier. An obvious handball by Thierry Henry was not caught by the referee, Swede Martin Hansson, and his assistants, and France went on to qualify at Ireland's expense because it scored after Henry passed the ball to teammate William Gallas.

"The experiments for the Europa League shall go on," FIFA president Sepp Blatter said. "But it has been decided that for the World Cup 2010 there is no change for referees. We will still have one referee, two assistants, one No. 4 and perhaps additional subs on the bench. But on the field of play you will have one referee and two assistants. This is for 2010, definitely."

Blatter described the handball as "blatant unfair playing" that was seen around the world and referred Henry to an independent disciplinary panel.

 

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