Outgoing Fifa vice-president Jim Boyce has urged the governing body’s next executive committee to investigate claims that the Football Association of Ireland accepted payments to not contest Thierry Henry’s infamous World Cup handball.
The former Arsenal forward handled the ball in the lead up to France’s decisive goal in 2010 World Cup qualifying, subsequently sending the French through at the expense of the Republic of Ireland in their play-off tie.
In a tumultuous week at Fifa, John Delaney confirmed the FAI allegedly reached an agreement with president Sepp Blatter, believed to be 5 million euros, to not take the case to the courts, and Boyce is dumbfounded by the revelations.
“How anyone can authorize a payment of 5 million euros to stop legal proceedings is totally and utterly beyond me,” the 71-year-old told UTV.
“If this was authorised by the president of Fifa without the knowledge of the executive committee – this is something that has to be looked into. I sincerely hope that when they meet they launch a full investigation into it.
“It’s just incredible and I can’t believe that it’s actually happened.”
Following Blatter’s resignation as president earlier this week amid an ongoing corruption scandal, this news will only serve to reduce Fifa’s credibility even further and Boyce, the former president of the IFA, insists any payoff is completely unprecedented.
He said: “I saw the game and there’s no doubt about it, it was a handball.
“But I’ve never known in my experience of football of someone giving a payment like that for a referees’s mistake to stop someone taking legal action.”
The former Arsenal forward handled the ball in the lead up to France’s decisive goal in 2010 World Cup qualifying, subsequently sending the French through at the expense of the Republic of Ireland in their play-off tie.
In a tumultuous week at Fifa, John Delaney confirmed the FAI allegedly reached an agreement with president Sepp Blatter, believed to be 5 million euros, to not take the case to the courts, and Boyce is dumbfounded by the revelations.
“How anyone can authorize a payment of 5 million euros to stop legal proceedings is totally and utterly beyond me,” the 71-year-old told UTV.
“If this was authorised by the president of Fifa without the knowledge of the executive committee – this is something that has to be looked into. I sincerely hope that when they meet they launch a full investigation into it.
“It’s just incredible and I can’t believe that it’s actually happened.”
Following Blatter’s resignation as president earlier this week amid an ongoing corruption scandal, this news will only serve to reduce Fifa’s credibility even further and Boyce, the former president of the IFA, insists any payoff is completely unprecedented.
He said: “I saw the game and there’s no doubt about it, it was a handball.
“But I’ve never known in my experience of football of someone giving a payment like that for a referees’s mistake to stop someone taking legal action.”
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