to the French Football Federation -LRB- FFF -RRB- in a bid to get the game reconvened . The world 's worst football injustices `` The governing body of world football have to step up to the plate and accede to our call for a replay , '' FAI chief executive John Delaney told reporters . The FAI pointed to a precedent set in 2005 when a World Cup qualifier between Uzbekistan and Bahrain was replayed after the referee was found to have committed a technical error in the application of the laws of the game . But a FIFA spokesman said the precedent did not apply because the referee in the match `` saw the incident in question and simply failed to apply the proper rules '' . Irish prime minister Cowen raised the issue with French president Nicolas Sarkozy at a European Union -LRB- EU -RRB- summit in Brussels , where the two leaders were meeting to vote for the next president of Europe . Cowen told the Irish Independent newspaper : `` I did n't ask for a replay . I said , you know : ` What do you think ? ' and he said : `
London , England -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- The governing body of world football , FIFA , has turned down the request from the Irish Football Association -LRB- FAI -RRB- to replay their deciding World Cup play-off game against France . The controversial match , that was played on Wednesday , has caused a diplomatic storm after French forward Thierry Henry admitted to illegally using his hand to set-up the goal that gave his team a 2-1 aggregate victory to seal qualification to the tournament . But despite a letter sent to FIFA by the FAI , and calls from both the Irish prime minister Brian Cowen and Irish justice minister Dermot Ahern for the game to be replayed , the sport 's organizing body has refused the request . In a statement on their official Web site FIFA stated : `` The result of the match can not be changed and the match can not be replayed . As is clearly mentioned in the Laws of the Game , during matches , decisions are taken by the referee and these decisions are final . '' Irish football officials lodged an official complaint with FIFA on Thursday and sent a letter