Fifa paid the Football Association of Ireland 5m euros (£3.6m) to stop legal action over Thierry Henry’s handball in Ireland’s World Cup play-off defeat by France in 2009, it has been claimed.
FAI chief executive John Delaney said the association believed it had a legal case against Fifa after France’s win.
Delaney said a “legitimate agreement” was made to drop the claim after Ireland missed South Africa 2010.
Henry handled the ball in the build-up to William Gallas’s decisive goal.
The Republic of Ireland were 16 minutes away from a place in the 2010 finals before Gallas’s extra-time equaliser in the second leg of the play-off in Paris.
The result sent France to the 2010 tournament, where they were knocked out of the group stages amid a player strike.
A Fifa spokesman confirmed the payment, but said a loan was granted for “the construction of a stadium in Ireland”.
The Aviva Stadium was the only major ground redeveloped during that period. It reopened in May 2010.
The spokesman added that the FAI were to repay the money if Ireland qualified for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, which they failed to do. Fifa wrote off the loan on 31 December 2014.
Delaney said he and Fifa president Sepp Blatter “came to an agreement” after Blatter publicly dismissed the country’s appeal to be made a “33rd team” at the tournament.
“We felt we had a legal case against Fifa because of how the World Cup play-off hadn’t worked out for us with the Henry handball,” he said in a radio interview with Ireland’s national broadcaster RTÉ.
“Also the way Blatter behaved, if you remember on stage, having a snigger and having a laugh at us.
“I told him how I felt about him, there were some expletives used. We came to an agreement”.
