Gullit - Ireland bought off for five million

Ruud Gullit has said that it was natural for fans of the Republic of Ireland to react with disappointment at the news that the FAI had been "bought off" by FIFA in the aftermath of the Thierry Henry handball incident during a World Cup play-off against France in 2009.

The former Netherlands, AC Milan and Chelsea midfielder acknowledged that the compensation offer made to Ireland's football governing body was one made in order to sweep under the rug any potential controversy in the run-up to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

However, the Dutchman said he was "more mad about Ireland" than he was at FIFA when he first heard the story and sympathized with the Irish players who featured for the Boys in Green on that night in Paris.

“Of course they are very disappointed,” said Gullit, speaking as an ambassador for Carlsberg during the visit of the Premier League trophy to Dublin on Wednesday. “Of course you are, you've been bought off for five million. That's disappointing.

“It's not my federation, it's a difficult thing [to judge from an outside perspective]. Look, on the other hand you think to yourself, 'Look, we were knocked out anyway, at least get something out of it.'”

When asked what the response of the KNVB, the Dutch Football Association, would have been in a similar scenario, Gullit admitted that it would have been a bitter pill for fans of the Oranje to swallow had they taken a compensation fee from FIFA. However, he added that the notion of a replay for Ireland against France was unthinkable, regardless of the FAI's belief that they had a legal case.

“Of course you would be very, very disappointed, but it didn't happen,” said the 1987 Ballon d'Or winner. “We didn't do it. The thing is, also with the Irish, like I said maybe they thought 'Look, we can't change anything about it, maybe we get something out if it.' Just take it. It is a difficult thing but you have to be with your federation.

“You know that this game would not be played again. You know that, it's not going to happen. Not gonna happen. You know that. It never happens so why would it happen now?

“So, I think he did well then because he got rid of it,” added Gullit when it was put to him that the compensation offer was made by FIFA president Sepp Blatter in order to avoid controversy. “FIFA, it's not their fault what happened. It was not their fault, but they wanted to get it out of the way and the Irish were competitors so move on.”

Four days before Christmas in 1983, Gullit and his Netherlands teammates were deprived a place at the following summer's European Championships when Spain achieved an improbable 12-1 victory over Malta to qualify at their expense. The Spaniards had needed exactly an 11-goal margin of victory to reach Euro 84 in France ahead of the Dutch and ultimately qualified on goals scored.

While the win is viewed in Spain as one of the most pivotal in la Roja's history as they went on to finish runners-up in the tournament, suspicion has always lingered over how the match itself unfolded – Spain were only 3-1 up at half-time. However, when a comparison between Spain-Malta and France-Ireland was put to Gullit, he just shrugged his shoulders.

“What can you do about it? You just accept it,” said the 66 times capped midfielder. “What can you do? You can scream and shout or whatever you like. You can have a lot of opinions about it, it doesn't help. So just get on with it.

“You know, we got our revenge later in the European Championships [Euro 88]. We won. Of course in that moment it is a huge disappointment when something like that happens, but don't get in that position in the first place.”

With Blatter finally set to stand down in February 2016 when a new FIFA president will be elected, Gullit believes much called-for changes can finally take place, but also thinks that the world football governing body has done a lot of good work which has been overlooked in the fallout from the much publicised corruption scandal currently besetting the association.

“It's a good thing, the changes,” said the 52 year old. “Of course, what happened in the last couple of years, a lot happened. It's a good thing that everything's changing, but the thing is FIFA also did a lot of good things and that has been a little undermined because of what happened in the past.

“A lot of countries rely on FIFA, they cannot exist without FIFA. So therefore, they're also doing a lot of good things, but now that all of these [negative] things have been revealed, it's time to reogranise it and they're willing to do that.”

Carlsberg ambassador and former Ballon d'Or winner, Ruud Gullit was in Dublin to showcase the coveted Premier League Trophy.