France 1-1 Ireland - 10 Years On

"Yes, there was hand." That is what Thierry Henry said after cheating his way through to the 2010 World Cup. A match that has gone down in history, Henry handled the ball to set up William Gallas to send Ireland out. This match can be traced back to the origins of the VAR debate and it was one that would have seismic eruptions long after the 18th November.

Even before the second leg had begun, Ireland had sensed there was a bias towards larger nations. In the middle of qualifying, FIFA decided to change the procedure of play offs to seed certain sides. This would ultimately disfavour smaller nations like Ireland as they would be drawn against better teams. That team would be France.

In the first leg at Croke Park, one goal from Nicolas Anelka separated the sides and put France in the driving seat. In France, Robbie Keane scored after some great work down the left side to put the tie level on aggregate. No other goals would come during the 90 minutes so extra time was needed. Then, in the 103rd minute, France earned a free kick.

This is when Ireland's sense of injustice went up another gear. The ball was played in but France defender Sebastien Squillaci was offside. It was not spotted by the officials and as the ball continued on, Henry, to prevent the ball from going out of play, controlled it with hand twice before passing to Gallas to score. It was, again, not seen by the officials. Cue outrage.

Shay Given ran over to the referee, as did practically every Irish player and manager Giovanni Trapattoni to the fourth official, to protest that Henry had touched the ball with his hand. The officials could not see what Henry had done so were oblivious to his obvious foul. Ireland couldn't score a goal in extra time so were eliminated. Referee Martin Hansson cried in the dressing room after the match was over - he knew what a catastrophic error had made. It was such a clear foul by Henry but there was nothing that could be done about it. Even Henry himself admitted he did handle the ball ("I can't say there wasn't hand") but it was too late by then.

Or was it? Two days later, the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) requested a replay of the second leg to FIFA. Henry said it would be the "fairest solution" but FIFA, correctly in my opinion, rejected the idea. It seemed like sour grapes from Ireland and, although there was a clear injustice, these things happen and football and the best thing the FAI should've done was to accept it and move on.

The grovelling, though, didn't end there. On 27th November, FIFA President Sepp Blatter met with Irish delegates in Zurich to debate the prospect of Ireland being a 33rd team at the World Cup. A ridiculous idea that was rejected by the FIFA executive committee. The FAI did not expect the appeal to go through so asked for a different measure to be compensated, such as being seeded for 2014 World Cup qualifying.

While Ireland sat at home watching the World Cup on tele, the French were off to South Africa and what would happen would be a national disgrace.

Having drawn to Uruguay in their opener, France's second match ended in defeat to Mexico and when the match was ongoing, Nicolas Anelka verbally insulted manager Raymond Domenech. He refused to apologise for his actions and was sent home. The next day, captain Patrice Evra was filmed having a heated exchange with coach Robert Duverne, with players having to intervene to separate the pair.

Following on from this, the players refused to train for one day in protest at the FFF's decision to send Anelka home. A meeting with French Sports Minister Roselyne Bachelot was convened where the younger players broke down in tears over the events that had taken place. The players apologised to Domenech but France exited the World Cup at the group stage. A final 2-1 loss to hosts South Africa was another humiliating moment for the French.

Domenech prior to South Africa had announced he would be leaving and was replaced by Laurent Blanc. The embarrassment of  South Africa was not forgotten as Blanc suspended all 23 players from his first squad. Five players (Anelka, Evra, Ribery, Toulalan and Abidal) were identified as the people who had orchestrated the circus show at the World Cup and were reprimanded for their actions.

Anelka was banned for 18 matches having already retired from international football, Evra received a five match ban, Ribery got three, Toulalan one and Abidal escaped punishment. This finally ended all the drama that had originated from Henry's handball.

Ten years on from the incident and it is still talked about in Ireland. They have failed to qualify for the past two World Cups while France did so for both, winning the tournament in 2018. Ireland had a great squad back then and the pain of not reaching one of the last two World Cups is why the pain is still present. It was a definite offence by Henry but some of the pain may have been lifted by France's abysmal performance in South Africa.

A decade has passed and this match still causes much debate and there is no doubt that in another ten years, Henry will still be remembered not for being one of the greatest players ever, but as the one who cheated against Ireland.