Players, fans, and even the Justice Minister of Ireland are demanding a replay of a missed ‘handball’ call against Thierry Henry.

The missed call came in a game between France and Ireland which ended allowing France to qualify for the World Cup.

Officials missed an offside in the build up to the winning goal. “Henry has admitted handling the ball, claims he told the ref he handled it,” Ahern said. “Millions of people worldwide saw it was a blatant double handball – not to mention a double offside – and we should put the powers that be in the cosy world of Fifa on the spot and demand a replay.”

The Republic of Ireland midfielder Kevin Kilbane concurred when he said the result should be thrown out: “Well, I’d like to think it would be replayed and I think everyone in the squad would like it replayed,” said Kilbane.

Asked about Henry’s part in the France goal, Kilbane said: “You see for yourself he’s handballed it once and it’s still going out of play so he’s handled it again to make sure it doesn’t go out of play. And you know what? I asked him on the pitch, ‘Did you handball it?’ and he said, ‘Yes, but I didn’t mean it.’ But when I’ve seen the replay it’s there for all to see that we were let down. It’s a massive disappointment.”

After the game he approached the referee: “I went over to the referee and I asked him what happened and if he’d seen the handball. He said, ‘I can 100% say it wasn’t handball.’ When he said that to me I knew full well that he was just lying to me because he hadn’t even seen it. That was the worst thing about it, we feel really hard done by.”