Fifa to debate extra officials in wake of handball row

FIFA is to discuss the possibility using two extra match officials at the World Cup in the aftermath of Thierry Henry's handball that helped France beat Ireland to a place in South Africa next summer.

Henry may also face a one or two-game ban at an extraordinary meeting of the executive committee of world football's governing body in South Africa a week tomorrow, two days before the draw for the finals.

Fifa will consider the practicalities of introducing the "additional assistant referees", who patrol the area behind the goal and to the goalkeeper's right. The idea of adding two extra officials has been used on an experimental basis in the Europe League this season, with mixed results.

The scheme is the idea of the Uefa president, Michel Platini, who believes it will deter diving and other forms of cheating in the penalty areas. Senior Fifa figures believe an "additional assistant referee" would have spotted Henry's handball in the qualifying play-off last week and the goal, scored by William Gallas, would not have stood. Fifa is known to favour greater human intervention rather than the introduction of video technology as it believes this would slow the game.

The Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, yesterday called the EGM, which will also discuss the hundreds of arrests across nine countries by officers investigating corruption and gambling in football as well as the crowd violence at last week's African play-off between Egypt and Algeria.