Well the Irish were ripped off royally today, as them sneaky French took hold of the ball (literally) and stole a berth in the world cup from under the Irish squad. 
Nice to see that FIFA officiating is still at the same reliable standard as in the pastā¦
Those sneaky French.Ā
Honestly, I think the French were just as surprised as anyone else.Ā The Ref should have taken a second or two before allowing the goal.Ā But once he allowed it, thatās it.Ā Those are the rules everyone agrees to before the game starts.Ā
Henry will undoubtedly admit it was a handball.Ā But itās no different than the Hand of God goal.Ā It would have been awesome if this had happened against Argentina rather than Ireland.
First head-butting and now handball?Ā Is there a remixed version of the video yet?
Oh wait, I have my French players mixed up.
Perhaps, but you have identified a trend. Non? 
So it is time that FIFA allows some video replays. After such a blatant mistake by the officials, I think a majority of the people involved would agree.
An interesting read about that:
http://www.goal.com/en-india/news/140/world-cup-2010/2009/11/19/1634646/world-cup-comment-thiery-hand-ry-dont-blame-the-player-blame-the-
Iām all for quick video replay (maybe 4th official can have a monitor).
But itās been more than 20 years since the Maradona incident, and soccer hasnāt suffered since then.Ā If anything, soccer has grown in popularity.Ā If you go back and read what was said about that incident, youāll see the exact same stuff is coming up now.
The ref is part of the game.Ā Both teams know the rules before they play.
We;ll keep all that in mind if Portugal should some how be denied their Cup due to a redfinition of the game 
Well Portugal has already benefited from a sudden change in the rules when UEFA decided to use seeding to help countries like Portugal in the playoffs ā¦ last minute change of rules ā¦ itās a good thing that football (soccer) is such a beautiful game that it can survive shenanigans like willfully blind officials and corrupt governing organizations ā¦
LOL, thatās another thing that has the Irishsā anger up, the fact that France was designated to host the second game of the home and home, an apparent change in the rules and all of that. No wonder conspiracy buffs have so much fun with soccer, thereās so much material to work withā¦ 
Um, didnāt they use the same type of seeding used for the 2006 World Cup?Ā Or am I not remembering that correctly?
Accoridng to Trapattoni, they changed the formula three months ago,
The play-off seedings: Ć¢ā¬ÅThat for me is bitter because there are many questions about the criteria. Three months ago they changed the rules about the seeded teams, and about which team plays first. The first seed was Russia and we were the last team in the ranking. We could have lost against Russia or Portugal, but thatās not the point.
belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport ā¦ 70029.html
montrealgazette.com/sports/I ā¦ story.html
Trapattoni was the more measured of responses to this, you want some good stuff do a google search with Roy Keane and Henry and you can almost hear the anger from hereā¦
Just a sample, Robbie Keane claims Fifa and Uefa will be 'delighted' France beat Republic | Republic of Ireland | The Guardian
ā¦you can find more anger with but one click:-D 
Iām not sure what his complaint isā¦ that he thought the lowest ranked should play the highest ranked?Ā The rules were that the 2 āpotsā would be selected by seeding, and the rest would just be a random draw.Ā So the top 4 teams would be in one pot, and the bottom 4 in the second pot.Ā Then they drew the pairs, one from each pot.Ā
As for playing at home or away, that was clear in the rules too ā it was a random draw.Ā
[quote=āJJRā]
Well Portugal has already benefited from a sudden change in the rules when UEFA decided to use seeding to help countries like Portugal in the playoffs ā¦ last minute change of rules ā¦ [/quote]
Hardly a sudden or last minute change.Ā Perhaps a clarification of an existing rule?
Well I just went back and checked, and the UEFA playoff round was seeded for both the 2006 and 2002 qualifications. Ā Youāll note that countries like Germany benefited from this in 2002 
Ā
Youāll also note that Portugal would have been in the bottom seeded pot if it werenāt for the Croatian defeat to England.Ā Of course UEFA and FIFA must have known in advance about the Croatian situation, and made the seeding rule knowing that Croatia would lose and therefore put Portugal in the top seeded pot, right?Ā They could see into the future?
I made the mistake of asking a friend of mine in Dublin about the football yesterday! Whoops! He kinda went into a long tirade about how they were robbed, but I know how he feels after the āHand of Godā episodeā¦ Though the UK already had āhistoryā with Argentina after the Falklands war in the early 80ās!
Mind you, us Brits still have to get revenge on Portugal after Ronaldoās āwinkingā incident too!! 
The issue is that the rules were changed part way through the qualifying tournament - not that seeding was used for the playoff round.Ā Prior to the qualifying tournament FIFA (Sepp Blatter) said that the playoff round would be by open draw.Ā But when things start to look dicey for the ābigā teams (including my Germany I might add - even though they always find a way to win ā¦ and will win the World Cup) ā¦ voila the rules are changed to benefit the big teams.Ā So seeding was used to determine the basics of each group, but the playoff round was to be by open draw with no seeding ā¦ and then the rules change towards the end of the qualifying round ā¦ thatās the issue.
Well that and Henry confusing basketball with footballā¦
Well to say the it was done to help teams like Portugal isnāt correct. At the time of the announcement Portugal would have been in the bottom pot.
Also, can you show me where in the tournament rules it says the playoff round would be an open draw?Ā I seriously canāt find it.Ā Since the rules havenāt changed in the last two tournaments, why would anyone assume they would change for this one?
Blatter is an ass.Ā Yes I agree.Ā
I wasted a huge amount of time this morning looking for the tournament rules on the FIFA website - all to no avail - that has to be one of the worst websites Iāve seen ā¦ and to find anything historical other than millions of press releases ā¦ not a chance ā¦
Do you have the tournament rules ā¦ since the UEFA qualifying tournament is unlike any of the other confederations ā¦
No I couldnāt find the tournament rules either. Maybe thatās on purpose. I had a lot more luck looking at the 2006 and 2002 UEFA qualifications on wikipedia. Anyway, every other part of the UEFA world cup qualifications, and the actual world cup tournament itself is seeded. So I donāt understand where people thought this one part would not be seeded.
Of course, itās probably because of some comment Blatter made somewhere.
Hereās Roy Keane on Ireland: Ā Where the hell was the goalkeeper and the defenders? Ā Letting Henry get goal-side, and the ball bouncing around inside the 6-yards, itās the defenders that should be held accountable.
Royās a bit of shithead himself, especially after his antics at the 2002 World Cup.