If FIFA and the French FA have the balls to take a stand against cheating at long last, then who knows what might happen...highly unlikely though!

True, they didnt replay that world cup final (i forget what year) when Maradonna scored the 'Hand of God' goal.

Was a quarter final, and rather different circumstances...given that technology is used in virtually every other major sport these days, you would think 23 years "after that goal" that it would now be in effect...retards at FIFA just won't give in though

you may notice that FIFA is Fédération Internationale de Football Association

dont ever mention that match again grrrrrrrr lol

Henry should start advertising hand cream

lmao

Yes - Henry Cheated

However

If they didn't get that goal, maybe France might have scored a goal (yes they might of only had 10 players), they might of still be able to win in penalties. You can't says if that goal was dis-allowed Ireland would go straight through (well you can )

I think FIFA will not reply the game, if they do are they going to give the goal that Ireland scored???

as per the socceroos v italy in germany with the infamous dive.

Did you watch the game?!?! Since when did France only have 10 players? You realize that this "chance" was the ONLY genuine chance they had in the whole of the game, and that's no exaggeration. The game was destined for penalties if we weren't cheated, and that's the most frustrating thing. If anything, I'd say we were more likely to score had we not been cheated, but alas, that's the bigger teams being favoured as has been mentioned umpteen times before.

If you want to have a bet on this, you can get odds of 10/1 on there being a replay, though I suggest spending your money more wisely...like hiring an assassin to take out Blatter, Platini and co.

wow wow wow guys

the referee had a brilliant game up until that point - remember, if this was just to get the big guys to the world cup he wouldve give a penalty when anelka went over in the box.....

he didnt see the handball - if he had he would have disallowed the goal......

replay - why?????

Ireland, along with many other teams have got decisions in their favour and against them over their history, but when it goes against you there is uproar.....

remember Maradona - every Englishman says he's a cheat - yet they all still crow about winning the world cup in 1966 when really the ball never crossed the line.....

time to chill out here guys and put things into perspective......

any other player would have done what henry done - he has admitted it - the referee missed it.....

unfortunate - yes

hiring assasins - chill out mate

that's beside the point mate, tobecome a ref for world cup standards you have to be able to handle (ignore the pun) situations like these and get them correct, yes maybe everyone else would've done it, but if you have to cheat to go through, should be auto disqualification as far as im concernd, especialy if a reply happend and then the french got a few more lucky goals which would the defeat the object plan.

Im not trying to defend the ref or anything here as a person in such a high pressure match should be up to the job - but it could have been simple as a player running infront of him, or a glance at the linesman looking for the offside that was never called...could have been anything for him to miss it.

he missed it, he should be punished - but it could have been something very simple. that comes from my experiance

Indeed it could, but as i hear, the ref and lino have microphones to speak with each other and there is also a buzzer to note when the flag goes up, if he did look over the the lino then he has made a massive mistake and off with his head!

Ireland has NEVER had a big decision go for them in a major game - we were robbed against Turkey, robbed against Belgium, but this has really taken the biscuit. We're beginning to accept now that a replay is just not going to happen, but SOMETHING has to happen to stop this happening again, which is the bottom line. Anelka's playacting would never have been given as a penalty by any referee, so that's meaningless. We could have ahad a penalty midway through the second half when Gallas bundled Doyle over. To say ANY other player would have done what Henry did is pathetic, and completely unfounded. The ball was going out of play, he cheated to keep it in play - not everyone would have done that. For shame.

All Irelands ex - players who I have seen interviewed have said they would have done it - especially Ronnie Whelan on the night - please dont call me pathetic for quoting what everyone else is saying

niall its true, ive done it in the under 16's FA cup quatre final for my local team as we was the major under dogs only playing in a sunday league, its natrual instinct to try and produce a win, but id never do it on a big scale

for christ sake guys get over it, cheating happens day in day out, to all teams, it's just one of those things, yeah okay it was a pretty awful event but bickering about it has gone on long enough, the game won't get replayed and shouldn't get replayed because if they're going to do it for one team they'd have to do it for loads of other teams who felt they were cheated.

I do honestly feel sorry for the irish because without that incident there could have been a different result, but thats just it, could, the game may have gone into extra time and France won anyway, it doesn't mean that Ireland would've gone through if Henry's antics hadn't of happened, the ref's decision is final, plenty of teams have had the rotten luck Ireland had, so if FIFA replay it, to me they would become hypocrits

boo the post above, we're debating not arguing

The incident happened in extra time.



I'm gonna play devil's advocate here and say that the referee was also the FIFA Confederations Cup final referee earlier this year, so the experience is there.



In other news, I see that Henry has said that a replay would be the only fair thing to do, or words to that effect. Easy to come out with, isn't it, when FIFA had already ruled out a replay?