FIFA Denies Ireland's Final Appeal

Since losing to France in the UEFA playoffs in about as controversial a fashion (Thierry's Henry's now infamous handball) this side of the referee himself kicking in the winning goal, the Republic of Ireland has held out the slightest glimmers of hope that somehow they'd be given a place at next summer's World Cup in South Africa.

They've petitioned France for a replay. They've asked FIFA for a replay. And Monday the Republic's final Hail Mary came in the form of asking FIFA to include them as the 33rd team in the 32-team tournament.

Finally Tuesday, FIFA slammed the door shut on the Irish.

FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke summed it up quite precisely.

"I wouldn't say it's a nonsense but it is impossible. There's no hope to give that there will be any more than 32 teams at the World Cup in South Africa."

Anyone that watched the match in Saint-Denis, France, on Nov. 18 or the subsequent replays certainly feels the Irish caught one of the all-time worst breaks in the history of sports. It didn't help matters much when Henry himself admitted he handled the ball with his arms. Nor did it soothe the Irish's frazzled nerves when you notice that a pair of French players were offside on the winning goal, too.

However to quote old-school 1980s rapper Kurtis Blow, "These are the breaks."

As much as the Irish got screwed by the arms of Henry, bad decisions by referees and umpires, unfortunately, is a part of sports. (Although anyone that watched the 2009 MLB Playoffs saw this hit a new all-time low.)

As Valcke said, "We had 853 qualifying matches. It's sad that we are talking about just one game."

Should FIFA go through the tape of each and every match played? Can or should a match -- on that was spread out over 210 minutes -- be replayed due to one incident?

And what about the logistics of adding a 33rd team to the tournament? As FIFA president Sepp Blatter pointed out Monday, if the Irish were included, so too would have been Costa Rica, which lost a playoff to Uruguay for the final spot in the Cup.

I actually got into a spirited argument about the Ireland controversy over the weekend with a friend. He was apoplectic over what happened to the Irish. I agreed with him, but countered should the U.S. have protested to FIFA for a replay in the 2002 World Cup quarterfinals when Germany's Torsten Frings clearly handled the ball on the goal line that went unnoticed by the match official?

As egregious as Swedish referee Martin Hansson's non-call in the France/Ireland match was, it would have also opened up a very slippery slope for FIFA had it ordered a replay. It's one thing if an official interprets a rule incorrectly, but questioning a judgment call? Do we really want to go down a path toward games being governed by artificial intelligences? Or that a team can protest a match and get a replay if it feels the ref made a bad call?

In short, Ireland clearly got the rawest of raw deals and will have a tough time watching next year's action in South Africa. In a perfect world Hansson would have whistled Henry for a foul and then the match would have been decided by the penalty kick lottery.

But as bad as Hansson's non-call on Henry's handball was, FIFA bending the rules to accommodate the wronged Irish would have been just as bad a decision.