Hated him since those quick free-kicks he took. Shows no sportsmanship at all.

right...with platini & blatter at the helm..i doubt it would happen though. Well if u ask me as a neutral footy fans..
yes i would really glad if france make it to world cup.. C'mon..for example, if France vs Australia @ Ireland vs Australia..
what match ur rather watch? But to be fair to the irish..they deserve to go to SA. So the best thing are having a
rematch between them..this way if...if France wins convincingly(i highly doubt they could with the idiot domenech
as their coach) then they "deserved" to go to SA. But as i mention earlier, it's a slim chance it going to happen.

There is no more fair play or justice in professional football ..

Just entertainment, politics and .. money, lots of it!

Accept that and continue to watch or else, just enjoy school football.

I really enjoy watching school football these days ..

school football =.=""
20 people chasing 1 ball...

Defender or striker all also going for the ball one. Even if when the ball is deep in team 2's field, all the team 1 defender will be upfront one lol....

Fifa will not grant the Football Association of Ireland's request for a replay of France's World Cup play-off win over the Republic of Ireland.

The Republic were beaten 2-1 on aggregate after France won with a goal from captain Thierry Henry, who handled the ball in the build up.

A Fifa source said: "There is no way the game can be replayed.

"To do so would cause absolute chaos for football. Fifa's rules are absolutely clear."

The source continued: "Law 5 states that a referee's decision on points of fact is final. That is the end of it. You cannot replay the match on this basis."

The FAI's chief executive John Delaney had lodged a complaint with Fifa asking for the match to be replayed to preserve the game's "integrity".

Fifa insisted its disciplinary code says referees' decisions "are final".

And the situation took on a political dimension as the Irish and French prime ministers disagreed over the matter.

Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen called on Fifa, football's world governing body, to order a replay, saying he would raise the issue with French President Nicolas Sarkozy at a Brussels summit.

But France's Prime Minister Francois Fillon responded that the Irish government should not interfere in footballing decisions.

Republic manager Giovanni Trapattoni said he does not expect a replay.

"When a referee decides a game has finished I know it is impossible to replay the game," said the Italian.

"This situation has to give a chance to who is responsible to rethink. It can be repeated in the future and we have to stop it."

Irish PM backs the FIA's replay appeal

Fifa confirmed that it has received the letter from the FAI.

In a statement, football's world governing body added: "As stated in Law 5 of the Laws of the Game, and also in Article 13, paragraph 6 of the Regulations of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, 'no protests may be made about the referee's decisions regarding facts connected with play. Such decisions are final, unless otherwise stipulated in the Fifa Disciplinary Code.'"

Trapattoni's side lost the first leg in Dublin 1-0 but were leading 1-0 in Paris before Henry handled the ball and squared for William Gallas to nod in a goal that sent France to the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa and left the Republic heartbroken.

"The handball was recognised by the Fifa commissioner, the referee observer and the match officials, as well as by the player himself," read the FAI statement.

"There is precedent for the invalidation of such results. In 2005, the bureau of the Fifa World Cup organising committee reached a decision to invalidate the result of a World Cup qualification match between Uzbekistan and Bahrain on the basis of a 'technical error by the referee of the match'.

"The Football Association of Ireland is hoping that 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."

FAI chief executive John Delaney added that the organisation had also written to their French counterparts as he urged Fifa to back up their words over fair play with actions.

"When you ask me is this clutching at straws, we have to do what we are doing," said Delaney. "We have to do it. It is up to the people who govern the game now, if they really believe in the principals of fair play then step forward.

"Every time I go to congress it is all about fair play and fair play ambassadors but well done is better than well said. They're words, I'd like to see actions.

"From the French FA point of view they need to look at themselves in this situation.

"Henry is their captain and a wonderful footballer but does he want to be like Diego Maradona and his legacy to be this handball, this goal that got them to the World Cup in an unjust manner?

"If we had qualified in this manner, I wouldn't be happy."

Referee Martin Hansson and his assistants failed to see Henry's offence and Trapattoni questioned the appointment of the officials, as well as Fifa's decision to seed the play-off draw at late notice.

The Fifa rankings had Ireland in 34th place, meaning France, Russia, Portugal and Greece were seeded for the two-legged play-off matches.

The top four teams were then drawn to face Ireland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ukraine and Slovenia.

"All fans saw what happened on the pitch," said Trapattoni. "I would only like to say I would like Fifa to explain how they selected the referee for this important game.

"For this important game we needed a stronger referee - an important referee."

He added: "I would give the advice to Fifa - maybe in the future change the rules about the play-off. Play two games and at the end of 90 minutes have no extra-time.

"I will go to Fifa and advise them 'go straight to penalties'. It's better for football. I think there are mistakes in life - I've seen many situations in football but change the rules.

"All sports lose credibility with this situation - it affects the integrity of the game. For me, it's bitter. There are many questions - they changed the rules about the seeded teams, then us playing away last.

"There are many doubts that have to be eliminated. Out of the non-seeded teams we were the only ones to play the second game away - why?"

Trapattoni refused to blame Henry but believes this sort of situation could force Fifa into bringing in the type of video technology that many in the game say is needed.

"There is a 30-second stop and we clarify the situation," he said. "I'm sure in the future they will have to do something about it. It wasn't up to Henry to say 'I touched it with my hand.'"

Earlier, Republic of Ireland assistant manager Liam Brady said the team would be willing to replay their World Cup play-off match against France.

"We would go to Paris and play again," Brady told Radio 5 live.

"It will not come to that but we would be willing to go to Paris, on their home ground, and have a fair winner."

hmm just a general question to u guys..is it really worth it? taking your country to the worldcup finals but flushing down your glowing reputation in the process? i don't think so.some things are more important than the chance to win trophies. yes players do some stupid things sometimes to gain an advantage. a little dive here, a little playacting there. but they seem 'minor' in comparison to what henry did in terms of impact and magnitude. its the worldcup for heaven's sake. the outcry will be monumental compared to any other competition. i don't think he'll be visiting ireland anytime soon..perhaps never again.

that was like saying the foul itself doesn't matter, but when, where, against whom and what at stakes decide whether it matters or not?

seriously?

And caught in the barrage is Thierry Henry who was wrong and who cheated but did nothing that footballers don't do in every game. He sought an advantage by breaking the rules and that happens every week from claiming throw ins which aren't yours, making fouls, pulling jerseys, diving and countless other actions intended to put yourself in a position to win the game. Not all of them are pretty, some of them more costly than others, but what's great about football is shit happens to you one week, it happens to someone else the next. Ireland got the shitty end of the stick this time but not many Ireland fans complained when we got a penalty in Georgia which wasn't a penalty. From a match report:

    A long ball found its way to Robbie Keane who seemed to control the ball with his hand only for the referee to let play continue. The ball was then cleared but only as far as Kevin Doyle as it deflected off the Waterford man and into the path of Ucha Lobjanidze. The referee then gave a shrill blast of his whistle for what appeared to be an offside by Keane.
    Instead to everyones surprise, Hyytia pointed to the penalty spot and deemed Lobjanidze to have handled the ball. Replays showed that Keane had handled the ball in the lead-up to this decision and that Keane was also offside as play continued.

Watch the footage. What's the difference? Was there outrage at Robbie Keane's deliberate, but much more sneaky, handball? Did the English press condemn the referee for favouring the 'bigger' team at the expense of the plucky eastern European underdogs? Did the honest souls Damien Duff and Robbie Keane tell the ref it wasn't a penalty? Of course they didn't. Robbie Keane scored it and celebrated.

France captain Thierry Henry has risked further wrath from Republic of Ireland after admitting it 'was neccesary to exploit what was exploitable' regarding his handball in their World Cup play-off.

The Irish have branded the striker a 'cheat' after he handled the ball in the build-up to William Gallas' extra-time goal in Wednesday's second leg, which gave Les Bleus a 2-1 aggregate win and a place in South Africa next summer.

Ireland's Football Association has submitted a written request to Fifa asking for a replay following the highly controversial events in Paris, but a source at world football's governing body has said there is 'no way' the plea will be answered.

Henry has already admitted to handling the ball and has now apologised, but the Barcelona star has also threatened to cause fresh outrage after confessing that he needed to help his side respond to Robbie Keane's first-half strike.

He said on his Twitter page: "I'm not the referee, but if I hurt someone I'm sorry.

"It was not a beautiful match. It was just neccesary to exploit what was exploitable.

Pressure

"The Irishmen could have doubled their lead two or three times. The ball ran up against my hand and I continued to play, the referee did not whistle and there was a goal.

"I would have preferred that it happened differently but this is not down to me - it is the referee. However, I do not believe our qualification is stolen.

"I said to Richard Dunne that the ball had touched my hand, but he told me, 'you are not to blame'."

When asked if Henry should have owned up, the forward's former manager at Arsenal, Frenchman Arsene Wenger, said on television in his homeland: "One should not say. Well, one should but one does not.

"We know the pressure and what is at stake. France should not gain qualification with these things. All the stadium has seen the handball, but the referee has not.

"This is not the French way and football should learn from this. In the end we qualified because of a referee's mistake."

hmm just a general question to u guys..is it really worth it? taking your country to the worldcup finals but flushing down your glowing reputation in the process? i don't think so.some things are more important than the chance to win trophies. yes players do some stupid things sometimes to gain an advantage. a little dive here, a little playacting there. but they seem 'minor' in comparison to what henry did in terms of impact and magnitude. its the worldcup for heaven's sake. the outcry will be monumental compared to any other competition. i don't think he'll be visiting ireland anytime soon..perhaps never again.

When people want to take the piss on certain players, they sprout every kind of rubbish available.

Like what Arseblogger quoted:

http://www.oleole.com/blogs/arseblog/posts...s--arsecast-139

The Irish were never that honest to begin with anyway, so it's only hypocritical (but also understandable) that they are not happy. But for other football fans to take the piss over Henry, they're just jumping on the witch hunt bandwagon.

Dives, shirt tugging, deliberate handballs... they are all wrong in their own ways.

But knee high tackles or career-ending challenges are the ones that should be condemned rather than what has been going on for the past few days.

Seriously everybody should listen to JAMIE REEVES's opinion which is the most NEUTRAL so far. It goes the following:
"If Henry goes to the Ref and admit it's a handball, all the French will hate/no-hold-barred against him. If he states the other wise, Ireland will hate him. It puts too much pressure on the player. it's the JOB of the REF, and the video tech for the moment is more than ready, why not use it"

Giving that you're in his position, WTF u going to do??

Oh come on dude. We are talking about deliberate handball here and a ticket to World Cup Finals. Shirt tugging...I am not sure (depends). Dives? Yes! What Henry did was in the same class of cheap diving, diving without the slightest contact. I know some of you are defending him because he played for Arsenal, but you seriously saying it was not deliberate? First time the ball hit his palm...Okay it might be accidental but if you notice enough, he then direct the ball to to his feet before making that pass! It was like juggling the ball with his palm!

Toshio said we cannot really confirm whether it was intention/deliberate, and I agree with him. Only him and God knows, but the replay to me is very convincing that it was deliberate. I cannot find any reason that it was not.

talking about joga bonito and fair play...

fair play my @ss

the beautiful game? LOL!