The incident in Wednesday's game attracted mass news coverage across Europe, but Henry - who admitted the handball immediately after the match - waited until Friday before releasing a statement.

In it he said: "Of course the fairest solution would be to replay the game but it is not in my control."

Both Irish skipper Robbie Keane and the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) then pleaded with the FFF to agree to replaying the game.

Keane said: "On behalf of the Republic of Ireland players, I would like to thank Thierry Henry for his statement this afternoon that in his opinion a replay would be the fairest option.

"As captain of the French team, to make such a statement took courage and honour, and all of us recognise that.

I'm sorry for Ireland, but honestly, but they had several chances to score and failed. And who knows, if Henry hadn't touched the ball with his hand, he might still have scored.

If you open the can of worms and allow replays for every foul, hands, pushing, holding, offside, yadda yadda yadda that a ref misses, you'll never get a match finished. Refs *do* make mistakes. They are only human after all, and don't have 360 degree vision that sees through players. It's all part of what football is. I don't want us to become a mockery of the sport like American Football, where they spend more time challenging calls and watching video replays, than actually playing the damn game.