I believe the term is: ROFL!

Ireland have asked for an extra world cup place

Now we know why the Irish are so over-represented in the comedy circuit

Do not heed the moaners and whingers

I keep hearing this

"Yet watching TV the day after the match, I saw footage of the Ireland/Georgia game that took place in February. "Ireland won a penalty that should never have been given. The resulting goal put the team through to the play-off against France" - Matthieu Barbarin, writing in the Guardian

Not quite - Ireland qualified by a good lead of four points over Bulgaria, that one dodgy decision was responsible for two of those points - against the bottom side in the group, whose performances weren't even counted in the decision on the final eight, Ireland comfortably made the second spot regardless of that goal

and, as I've said before, dodgy decisions across a drawn out competition tend to balance themselves out - one single incident in a 30-minute tie-breaker is not quite the same

The other line of pursuit, typically from those who like to pour scorn on popular sports, like Dominic Lawson, is the one that footballers all cheat - Henry simply didn't get caught, so the referee gets the blame much like a copper getting the blame for not stopping a murder

Very true, cheating is tolerated far too much - but he misses the point, simply because Robbie Keane would've done the same thing does not make it acceptable to allow that goal

Why not? Because it's a miscarriage of justice - we know that the goal was a blatant foul, not in some grey area of 'did he/didn't he' - any cheating is noted by the viewers and the press, and disliked by the vast majority, but if no one will act then why won't the players 'chance their arm' - they are human, after all, it doesn't mean we should write the whole game off

You see, what the disdainful commentators fail to add in their criminal metaphor is that what actually happens is, while the crime is indeed committed, even with irrefutable evidence the court does nothing to seek justice - there is no punishment

No wonder they'll have a go at burglary if they can't be tried after 10 million witnesses saw them coming out the back window with a bag marked 'swag' - "ah, but ze referee did not see eet"

It is FIFA who allow this ridiculous fiasco to continue - we all see the crime, but they refuse to act on it with video technology that could easily sort the problem out within 30 seconds, allowing the game to be decided by a couple of fallible humans watching 22 players with nothing but their own eyes, while the audience has a perfect view of every minute detail, not only breeds dishonesty in the players, but anger from the audience - hence the reaction to France's victory - there was absolutely no need to let it stand

Maybe we are hypocrites, all humans are certainly guilty of that at times, but it is the fact that we allow seen cheating to go unpunished that enrages us so, it goes against the desire for natural justice

Anger on the Internet

In a rather unprecedented move the BBC have set up a live chat solely so we can all whinge about the Ireland robbery, technically a foreign country (yet whose citizens have certain special benefits here) but it's aroused the Brits considerably, 15,000 votes cast already (the referee and Henry getting most of the flak)

The feeling is strong, there's no doubt it was wrong - but FIFA won't do a thing, they've got their top ten nation and that's all that matters - so you may as well go and let off steam

I was barely walking when it happened and the Hand of God still gets to me, so welcome to the club boys

Ireland robbed by ghost of Maradona

Ireland, after having outplayed France and beat them at home, have been robbed by a ridiculous handball by Thierry Henry in extra time, France head to the world cup as cheats

A truly shocking turn of events - I thought we were better than that these days? What with four officials and all, I have yet to see it myself - but the BBC say it was blatant and I'll look for a video to put up

Edit: Here's the video - he's even keeping it in play with his hand - France should've had their top striker sent off before a penalty shoot out and instead they go the world cup...C'est la vie



Seriously - how can they allow such an injustice to go unchecked? It's blatant, everyone was aware of it as it happened, this isn't 1986 anymore

In other news Portugal did qualify, as I expected...

But Russia and Ukraine both surprisingly went down - Greece claimed the only goal of the two-leg tie to sink Ukraine in Kiev, and Slovenia beat a deflated Russia 2-2 on away goals

In Africa, Algeria triumphed in the deciding play off in Sudan

Slovenia were the only unseeded team to qualify from the UEFA play-offs


So much for Hiddink...

The final spot is fairly benign, between Uruguay and Costa Rica - Uruguay lead 1-0 and are at home - perhaps Costa Rica will tie it and Uruguay will throw the ball into the net in ET?

This is a travesty - I just don't understand how they can allow this to stand - it's only 15 minutes of extra time anyway...just call a penalty shoot-out!

Ireland to face France... I think

I'm not 100% sure about this, as the BBC seem to be paying no attention to this live draw (which they advertised), and FIFA, despite claiming to have started 20 minutes ago failed to put up a stream

But here are the tentative play-offs:

France v Ireland
Portugal v Bosnia
Greece v Ukraine
Russia v Slovenia

oh and now the BBC confirm it - I guess they technically published before me

Can't say better than that really - I'd want France or Greece, hopefully they'll both be going out - good luck to Bosnia as well, what are your opinions on the draw?

One thing I must point out is this piece of reasoning from FIFA:

"The top four nations in the draw are seeded according to the latest edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking, published on 16 October. France (ranked number 9), Portugal (10), Russia (12) and Greece (16) go into Pot 1. Pot 2 will contain Ukraine (22), Republic of Ireland (34), Bosnia Herzegovina (42) and Slovenia (49).

However, the ranking positions of the unseeded teams does not necessarily reflect their current form, as all four nations have claimed the runners-up spots in their groups with impressive and courageous qualifying campaigns"

So, having just admitted the ranks mean nothing why have you seeded them at all!

Ireland face a challenge

The news is that Ireland will not be seeded for the UEFA play-off draw, they were never likely to be, but still...

I had not actually realised that the teams were not originally going to be seeded - apparently the decision wasn't made until September 29th (obviously I somehow overlooked that before) which frankly smacks of unfairness

As Shay Given said, if FIFA had decided to seed in the first place then fine - but to do it when France and Portugal were looking precarious is a joke, the teams were already seeded once, why should they get a second crack at the whip? Seriously, I want to see some justification - they've all gone through the same process and the 'big' teams have cocked up, now they are rewarded and protected by UEFA/FIFA

I remember when we fell foul of Russia before Euro 2008, there was much hopeful talk of us being given a lifeline - England too big to go down and all that, money from the fans etc... it was complete fantasy of course, but I think we have a bit of a case for our noses being out of joint now

I wish Ireland all the best and they are perfectly capable of beating France, Portugal, Greece or Russia - and Ukraine will be a match for any of those teams, I hope that France or Portugal - by no means in their position because of a fluke, get Ukraine or Ireland - I think Russia would be the biggest test

We shall find out on Monday at 1pm