Fifa To Deny Ireland’s World Cup Replay Appeal

World football governing body FIFA will not grant the Football Association of Ireland’s request for a replay of France’s World Cup play-off game against the Republic of Ireland following the controversial goal that saw France qualify for next year’s tournament.
 
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.

The FAI had lodged a formal complaint with FIFA requesting that the game be replayed to preserve the game’s ‘integrity’ but that request is set to be denied.

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.

‘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.’

FIFA confirmed that it had received the letter from the FAI and 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.”

An FAI statement regarding the appeal read: ‘The handball was recognised by the FIFA commissioner, the referee observer and the match officials, as well as by the player himself.

‘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 the appointment of the officials has been questioned, 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.