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The Republic of Ireland have appealed to FIFA to declare the extra-time defeat to France on Wednesday as null and void after Thierry Henry was seen to commit a blatant handball in the lead-up to the decisive goal, but it has been rejected out of hand by the World Football governing body.

“As is clearly mentioned in the Laws of the Game, during matches, decisions are taken by the referee and these decisions are final.” they said.

Meanwhile the French Economy Minister, Christine Legarde, has also called for FIFA to change the rules so that the game can be replayed.

Lagarde said: “I am obviously very happy that the team is in the World Cup but I think it’s very sad to have qualified on this, well, on this cheating.

“And I think that Fifa would do well to look at the rules because I think it would be good, in such circumstances, to decide maybe to replay the match.

“Firstly, we should respect the referee, secondly, we respect the rules, but if the rules are bad, they have to be challenged.”

Arsene Wenger has also joined the argument, and says that he told Henry after the game that he should have owned up, but also it was the referees decision to see the infringement.

“I have spoken to Titi [Henry] after the game and he knows it was not correct but it is up to the referee also to stop the play.” Wenger said.

“We qualified because of a referee’s mistake, the strength of a wrist and also the clumsiness of the Irish in front of their goal. We would have preferred to qualify in a different manner.”

“All the stadium has seen the handball, but the referee hasn’t. This isn’t the French way and football should learn from this.

“We qualified by the back door like Portugal. Our qualification resembled that of Portugal. A bad start, a lack of confidence and we got through with a very uncomfortable feeling.

“The goal we scored was hard to swallow if you were in the opposite camp. We would have preferred to qualify in a different manner.”