DAMIEN DUFF HAS not been stripped of his century of caps.
The 33-year-old winger announced his international retirement last month after earning his 100th cap against Italy at Euro 2012.
However, reports in the Irish Daily Star this morning revealed that the friendly against Hungary back in June would not be recognised as an official senior international match by FIFA due to an administrative error, meaning the Dubliner would only have 99 caps.
Ireland travelled to Budapest for their final warm-up game ahead of the European championships – drawing 0-0 in a dull affair which Duff was named in the starting XI to earn his 97th cap. And the Hungarian FA’s decision to appoint Danish referee Kenn Hansen, who was not on the FIFA list of referees, for the game caused the mishap.
However, the FAI have told TheScore that they have been in contact with FIFA and the Hungarian FA about the matter and, despite the game not being recognised, Damien Duff will retain his 100 caps.
“As an away match, the Hungarian FA was responsible for all aspects of the fixture,” the statement read. ”The Hungarian FA said this morning that they were unaware of the matter but have been in contact with FIFA.
“They said that they intend to continue their discussions with FIFA in order to have the fixture recognised for international ranking purposes. They have also confirmed that it is their intention to record the fixture as an international match for the purposes of caps.
“Separately, FIFA confirmed to the FAI this morning that one of the assistant referees who officiated at the match, Mr David Vang Andersen was not on the current FIFA list of referees and this is the reason why they are not recognising the match for their international ranking coefficient.
“FIFA and UEFA also confirmed this morning that the decision to award a cap is at the discretion of the National Association and that they do not keep a central record of caps.
The Football Association of Ireland has decided that the players who participated in the fixture deserve caps, particularly Damien Duff for the service that he gave to his country. Consequently, the Association has informed Damien that it will recognise his status as having earned 100 caps for Ireland.”
Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni remains hopeful that Duff might return to the international set-up for the current World Cup qualifying campaign starting with the fixture against Germany in Dublin next month.
Mike, the clue is your reading a news feed on line.
Sadly as a long time supporter of the boys in green I must say I’ve seen him play more average games than good ones you need to be at the game to see how little he offers off the ball he always looks tired
overated,flattered to deceive,commitment never questioned to the cause though,should be remembered for his loyalty to the green shirt,pity it didn’t rub off on gibson
Would love to see him come out of retirement, even if it was only for one game, namely Vs. Germany
The lads in the pub say he was one of Irelands greatest players, I agree he did well.
Duffer never fulfilled his potential good servant tho.
he always looked bollixed, off the ball.hands on hips and panting.good servant in terms of caps though.some man to get a free kick awarded too.would love to see the stats to see percentage of free kicks duff won.well done duffer all the same.
Nice guy, committed, he reached the pinnacle of his career while at Chelsea, but once he left he never reached those heights and became, in my view, only an ordinary player…
99 caps / 100 caps irrelevant
He’s no Gary Breen like
Why is this news?