FIFA receive Irish demands but play down replay hopes
On Thursday, a letter comes to FIFA from FAI (Irish Football Association) for requesting the replay of their controversial World Cup against France.
The ruling body of the World’s Football has given an indication that there can be a little chance of granting the request of FAI.
France is in the second level in Paris with 1-1 after beating the republic of Ireland with 1-0 in Dublin and has been qualified for the world cup finals with the Ireland crashing out.
The match was stop with the argument that in the match before passing the ball to William Gallas for heading the goal, Thierry Henry the captain of France football team used his hand for stopping the ball that was going out of the play. And thus the France wins the match by an aggregate of 2-1.
This situation has now turned into a political situation. The Irish prime minister is forcing FIFA for the replay of the same match once again. But, the French Prime Minister Francois Fillon, is arguing that governments should not interfere in this matter.
On Thursday, the FAI said that the integrity of the sport has been damaged due to the blatantly wrong decision given by the referee to award the goal to the France. The FAI also said that they will call on FIFA, the world governing body of football, to organize and replay the same game.
The football body of Irish pointed to an instance – In 2005, the result of the match played between Bahrain and Ukbekistan was invalidated by FIFA as there was technical error in the decision given by the referee in the match. In that match, an Uzbeki player had violated the rule by entering into the Bahrain defensive area and at the same time the penalty was taken by some other teammate player. The match referee gave a decision of indirect free kick to the Bahrain Team instead of giving a decision of penalty re-take.
The FAI is expecting the same decision from FIFA so that the standards of integrity and fair play can be protected.
When asked about this incident to FIFA, it said that this time the situation is totally different from that one.