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Following their 2-1 controversial loss in World Cup qualifying to France, Ireland’s soccer federation is asking FIFA for a replay of the match. France qualified for the World Cup after a blunder of errors by the referees allowed France to go up 2-1 in the first overtime session.

Replay of the goal clearly showed two French players in an offside position and as Thierry Henry attempted to trap the ball he clearly used his hand before crossing it into William Gallas to head home the winner.

Henry has since admitted to using his hand to trap the ball but said it was clearly out of instinct and not done intentionally. Even with Henry’s admission to the hand ball it will be almost impossible to replay the match.

In order to replay the match France would have to admit fault to the incident and agree to replay the match. This will surely not happen.

Back in 2005 FIFA did allow a replay in a World Cup Qualifier between Uzbekistan and Bahrain following a horrible mistake made by the referee. Ireland officials know it will be very hard to replay this match so they are insisting that replay be made available for the future if something like this happens again.

This incident is not going away anytime soon. The amount of time and effort given by these countries to qualify for the World Cup every four years is astronomical. Ireland was cheated out of a spot in the biggest stage in the world and we don’t see them going away without a fight.