Ireland calls for France World Cup replay

November 20, 2009

The Football Association of Ireland called on Thursday on FIFA to order the World Cup playoff 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 playoff in Paris, before passing to William Gallas to head the goal which gave France a 2-1 win on aggregate.

The FAI said in a statement: “The blatantly incorrect decision by the referee to award the goal has damaged the integrity of the sport and we now call on FIFA, as the world governing body for our sport, to organise for this match to be replayed.”

The Irish football authorities said there was a precedent for such cases, pointing to 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 and its Disciplinary Committee will, on behalf of football fans worldwide, act in a similar fashion so that the standards of fair play and integrity can be protected.”

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

A FIFA spokesman told AFP that they had yet to not receive anything from the Irish FA. They had only just received the official match reports and were currently reading them.

DUBLIN (AFP)

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