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Oscar winning actress Charlize Theron had some fun at FIFA's expense during a trial run for Friday's World Cup draw when she 'drew' Ireland.

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The South African (pictured), whose long-term boyfriend is Irish actor Stuart Townsend, made the tongue-in-cheek gesture just one day after FIFA rejected Ireland's appeal to be added to the competition as a 33rd team.

The Irish made the request after France's Thierry Henry was clearly seen handling the ball before setting up William Gallas for the winning goal in the play-off between the two sides.

Theron will co-host Friday's draw with FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke, and Valcke confirmed that Theron pulled Ireland instead of France out of the bowl during rehearsal.

"Yes, she did, but it was only a joke," he said.

The 90-minute show will be televised live to an estimated global audience of more than 200 million people in 200 countries.

She will help place the 32 finalists into eight groups of four teams for the tournament which runs from June 11 to July 11.

The show will include an African musical spectacular, including gospel and jazz.

A host of sporting celebrities will also take part in the draw including Ethiopia's Olympic champion runner Haile Gebrselassie, England midfielder David Beckham, South Africa footballer Matthew Booth and cricketer Makhaya Ntini, and the host country's rugby World Cup captain John Smit.

South African president Jacob Zuma will be in the audience along with Nobel Peace prize winners FW de Klerk and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Fifa's Sepp Blatter has revealed the Republic of Ireland have requested a spot in the 2010 World Cup finals as an extra team after their play-off defeat.

The Republic lost to an extra-time goal against France when Thierry Henry handled the ball during the build-up.

"I will bring it to the attention of the Executive Committee," said Blatter.

The president of football's world governing body added that goal-line technology and extra referees would be considered for the South Africa finals.

The executive committee will hold an emergency meeting in Cape Town on Wednesday, two days ahead of the draw for the finals, to assess the idea of extra match officials, one behind each goal.

If they recommend the proposal it will go before football's rule-making international board in Zurich in March for a final decision.

"It's possible we will make additional officials for the World Cup but we have to see if it is feasible or realistic," added Blatter. "Something has to be done in terms of match control.

"We have only one man on the field of play who shall intervene in this matter. He has two assistants for the time being, perhaps more in the future. He has to make an immediate decision.

"He has only two eyes. So match control is now is on the agenda. How shall we avoid such situations as we have seen in this very specific match?"

Regarding the Republic's case, Blatter added that Costa Rica, who also believe they were unfairly denied a place in the finals – this time because of an offside goal from Uruguay – would also have to be acknowledged if extra places are discussed.

The Football Association of Ireland released a statement, confirming Blatter had agreed to a meeting in Zurich last Friday, which lasted for 90 minutes.

"A lot was discussed at the meeting and at one stage the FAI asked if Ireland could be accommodated into the World Cup 2010," read the statement.

"Other suggestions were also made to mitigate against further occurrences of such incidents, including the use of additional goal-line assistant referees for Fifa international matches, further use of video technology for matches at the highest level, stronger provisions to discourage players from engaging in such blatant breaches of the laws of the game and provisions to strengthen referee selection for such important matches."

The Republic originally asked for the play-off to be replayed but that request was turned down by Fifa.

The man at the centre of the storm, former Arsenal striker Henry, released a statement two days after the infamous match in which he said a replay would have been "the fairest solution".