Fifa’s executive committee have decided against bringing in the five-referees system for next summer’s World Cup and also announced that Thierry Henry is to be investigated by their disciplinary committee over his handball against the Republic of Ireland.
In ruling out the prospect of extra referees behind the goals for the tournament in South Africa the executive committee did pledge to launch an inquiry to consider both technology and extra officials in the future.
Fifa will maintain one referee with two assistants and a fourth official for the finals.
The system of extra officials behind goals has been trialed in this season’s Europa League and though no major incident has occurred since the change it has been considered a success.
The prospect of the system being rushed through in time for the World Cup 2010 finals was raised after Henry clearly handled the ball twice in the build up to France’s decisive goal in their play-off with Ireland.
The Irish were incensed that the goal was allowed to stand though the match referee was unsighted.
The incident prompted calls for the introduction of video technology, as is prevalent in other sports, though Sepp Blatter, the Fifa president, and Michel Platini, head of Uefa, the European governing body, oppose such a move in principle.
Henry's case was the subject of detailed discussion in an emergency meeting of the FIFA executive committee in Cape Town today.
Blatter said: "The disciplinary will open a case on the behaviour of the player Thierry Henry."
Asked why Fifa were making a special case of Henry, he added: "This is a matter of the disciplinary committee and it's not a question of this player or another - it was a blatant unfair playing and was shown all around the world, but I don't know what the outcome will be."
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