Henry Handball Cheats Ireland Out of World Cup Place

France put Ireland out of the World Cup last night in the cruellest of fashions after Thierry Henry blatantly handled the ball before passing to team mate William Gallas who scored in extra time.

Henry’s flagrant cheating is being dubbed the “Hand of Gaul”, rivalling the infamous event at the 1986 World Cup when Maradona delivered the “Hand of God”.

The World Cup qualifying match had been dogged with controversy even before a ball had been kicked when ruling body FIFA made a late switch to seed teams in the qualifying draw rather than have a random draw. When it looked like big names such as Portugal and France could miss out on the finals in South Africa next year, FIFA pulled strings to make it easier for those teams to qualify.

Denied the chance of playing the likes of Bosnia Herzegovina or Slovenia, Ireland nevertheless approached France with a passion and determination to win. After a hard fought but disappointing 1-0 defeat at Croke Park on Saturday, Ireland needed to score at the Stade de France in order to reach the finals.

Talisman Robbie Keane did not disappoint, firing the Irish ahead on the 33rd minute after Damien Duff pulled back ball across the goal; Keane was not going to miss from 12 yards. As the game went in to extra time, Ireland had the upper hand against a French side that lacked urgency.

Then 103 minutes into the game, Thierry Henry virtually caught the ball as it came across his right side to keep it in play, delivering a killer pass to Gallas who headed home for victory. France won the game 2-1 on aggregate, breaking Irish hearts in the process.

After the game, Henry admitted to handling the ball, but said it was Swedish referee Martin Hansson’s fault for not picking up on his foul play. “I will be honest, it was a handball. But I’m not the ref. I played it. The ref allowed it,” Henry said in television interviews after the match watch on the BBC and Sky Sports.

In the other qualifiers, Portugal limped past Bosnia Herzegovina 1-0 to win 2-0 on aggregate and Greece claimed their place at South Africa with a 1-0 victory over Ukraine. There were further upsets in the qualifying rounds as Slovenia beat Russia 1-0 at home, going through on away goals and Algeria knocked out current Africa Nations Cup champions Egypt to book their place at South Africa 2010.

With such controversy rife in football, surely it is time to follow the lead of other major sports and bring in video refereeing that can adjudicate such problems. With such a system, perhaps some of these footballing mishaps would be stamped out of the game.

But as the authorities out there still hardening the fact that "THERE WOULD BE NO TECHNOLOGY IN FOOTBALL". :)