Football: Ireland calls for France World Cup replay
Posted: 20 November 2009 0012 hrs

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DUBLIN : Angry Irish football chiefs called Thursday on FIFA to order the World Cup play-off with France to be replayed, after France's Thierry Henry helped knock out Ireland with a clear handball.

Video replays showed Henry used his hand to stop the ball going out of play in extra-time of Wednesday's play-off in Paris, before passing to William Gallas to head the goal which gave France a 2-1 win on aggregate.

"The blatantly incorrect decision by the referee to award the goal has damaged the integrity of the sport," the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) said in a statement.

"We now call on FIFA, as the world governing body for our sport, to organise for this match to be replayed."

The Irish football body pointed to a precedent: a FIFA decision in 2005 to invalidate the result of a World Cup qualification match between Ukbekistan and Bahrain on the basis of "a technical error by the referee of the match".

The FAI said it hoped FIFA would "act in a similar fashion so that the standards of fair play and integrity can be protected".

A FIFA spokesman told AFP they had yet to receive a request from the FAI. They had only just received the official match reports and were in the process of reading them, he added.

Ireland coach Giovanni Trapattoni told a press conference minutes before the statement was released by his employers that he did not believe FIFA would grant a replay.

"It is impossible to repeat the game," the experienced Italian said.

He urged FIFA to explain how Swedish referee Martin Hansson, who failed to spot the incident, had been chosen for such a high-profile match, saying: "For this important game we needed a stronger referee, an important referee."

Trapattoni also called for extra-time to be scrapped at the end of the two-leg World Cup play-offs, with the second match instead going straight to a penalty shoot-out in the event of a draw in regulation time.

Hansson, who works as a fire-fighter, failed to spot the Henry handball. The player himself admitted handling, but said the responsibility for seeing the incident fell to the match official.

Trapattoni refused to blame the player, saying: "It wasn't up to Henry to say 'I touched it with my hand'."

The France-Ireland game was one of four decisive play-offs on Wednesday which finalised the 32-nation line-up for next year's finals in South Africa.

The draw for the finals is due to be made in Cape Town on December 4, leaving little barely two weeks for a replay to be scheduled in a calendar already crowded by club matches.

Questions were asked in the Irish parliament after the Henry incident, with Justice Minister Dermot Ahern also suggesting Ireland appeal to FIFA for a replay.

"They probably won't grant it as we are minnows in world football but let's put them on the spot," he told RTE state radio.

"It's the least we owe the thousands of devastated young fans around the country. Otherwise, if that result remains, it reinforces the view that if you cheat, you will win."

The Irish press were unanimous in their condemnation.

"We were robbed" said the Irish Star, "Le Cheat" added the Irish Mirror, while the Irish Sun splashed with the "Hand of the Frog" -- a play on Diego Maradona's 1986 "Hand of God" goal against England.

A Facebook page entitled "We Irish hate Thierry Henry (the cheat)" also drew hundreds of comments -- some of them unprintable -- including a call for an Irish boycott of French goods.

"I would say croissant sales will slump today," said one contributor to the social networking site page.

One financial expert said Ireland's failure to make next year's World Cup finals will cost the already recession-bound Irish economy millions of euros.

"What we saw happen yesterday was not only a blow to the Ireland team in terms of the World Cup but also to the Irish economy at a time when it has already taken a major blow," said Henk Potts of Barclays Stockbrokers.

Reacting to the growing row, shaving company Gillette said it had no plans to axe star striker Henry from its advertising.

"Thierry Henry has publicly acknowledged that it was a handball... This is not going to affect our relationship with Thierry Henry," said a spokesman for Gillette, part of US consumer products giant Procter and Gamble.

- AFP /ls