Not sure how I feel. Two corrupt organizations playing behind-the-scenes games. The Henry "goal" was an egregious non-call in one of Ireland's biggest games in recent memory. I recall everyone talking about a re-play but then the talk quickly died down. Now there's this admission years later: The Football Association of Ireland has claimed it was paid €5m (£3.67m) by outgoing Fifa president Sepp Blatter to drop legal action over a controversial handball by Thierry Henry that prevented the country reaching the World Cup finals in 2010. Fifa, football’s governing body, however later claimed the sum was in fact $5m (£3.25m), and was a loan to build a stadium, which it subsequently wrote off when Ireland failed to qualify for the 2014 World Cup. Henry handled the ball in setting up William Gallas’ extra-time goal which ultimately sent France through to the 2010 finals in South Africa ahead of the Republic of Ireland. The incident in the second leg of their play-off, which finished 1-1 to give France a 2-1 aggregate win, was not spotted by Swedish referee Martin Hansson and sparked a huge outcry. FAI chief executive John Delaney confirmed for the first time that Fifa had agreed to the payment in order to avoid a protracted legal row. “We felt we had a legal case against Fifa because of how the World Cup play-off hadn’t worked out for us with the Henry handball,” he told RTE Radio 1. http://www.theguardian.com/football...fai-thierry-henry-handball-loan-build-stadium
The story is a bit involved, but basically as follows. Ireland, Spain (then European champions) and Syria were in the same WCQ group. Syria withdrew. Ireland beat Spain in Dublin (1-0), Spain beat Ireland in Seville (4-1). Goal difference didn't count in those days. A one game playoff, neutral venue, was required to see who qualified for England. Spain wanted Portugal, Ireland wanted Manchester or London. The powers that be also wanted England, supposedly as a trial run for the big event the following year. But it was down to Ireland and Spain to decide. London was the logical venue as there were huge amounts of Irish there and a sizeable Spanish community. The FAI settled on Paris as a compromise(!), thus ensuring zero Irish support on the night. There was a large Spanish community in Paris, plus it was easy to reach from Spain by train. From Ireland in those days? In a depressed economy? Flying was the purvue of the seriously wealthy only and from Dublin would have required 2 ferries and 2 trains over 2 days, one way. Not happening. The payoff was the FAI took the Spanish half of the gate receipts. All told about £25,000, about 3 times the FAI;s annual budget at the time. Zero Irish fans, plus the players had to boat and train it to Paris, stay overnight, etc. Spain won 1-0, scoring 10 minutes from the end in a game many observers felt was too close to call. Could have done either way. The FAI took the easy quick money rather than the substantial payout they would have received had they beaten Spain. Bird in the hand and all that, but a singular, huge lack of belief and ambition. Paris, coincidentally enough, was another FAI sellout 40 years later.