Luck of the Irish wore out. Get over it.

Nobody likes a sore loser.

When West Ham controversially stayed up in 2007 thanks to a goal by Carlos Tevez, who was owned by god knows who at the time, a few people raised their eyebrows and muttered that they wouldn't like to be Sheffield United, who went down instead. But then they remembered that West Ham had already suffered a stonking fine for fielding a player who had irregular paperwork, the authorities had looked into things and considered themselves satisfied, and that you cannot possibly single out one player as being the sole reason for a club's fortunes.

Sheffield United were rightfully aggrieved, but in the name of christ, they were still arguing about it two years later. Lawsuits, appeals, letters to government, and currently the club is still looking at a multi squillion pound fine that is severely hampering its financial position and still threatens to kill West Ham stone dead. Nobody likes when the fates seem to be against them, but the endless court action, telling anyone who will listen that the game is crooked, that it was anybody's fault but theirs that they couldn't beat Wigan at home, does more harm to the game that an Argentinian bloke who signed a dodgy contract in his infancy because he didn't want to live in the mud any more.

I fear the same scenario may be happening with the Republic of Ireland. The fact that the officials missed Henry's handball is a disgrace, the fact that Ireland were forced to play a big team in the play-offs is a disgrace, but asking for an extra place at the World Cup is one of the most ill-thought out, petulent and ridiculous requests I have ever heard in football.

I won't even go into the logistics of how this would work, because in no way could it possibly do so. But I will say this; as hard as their defeat was to take, Ireland have no more right to be in the World Cup than any of the other teams who came so near and yet so far. Take the Henry incident out of the equation and Ireland still hadn't won the game. Defeat was snatched from the jaws of a penalty shoot out they may well have lost.

There are many ways for Ireland to vent their frustration. Sue FIFA for seeding the play-offs at the last minute. Or lobby for video technology to be used. Personally I'm very uneasy about letting video into football - it isn't a stop-start game like tennis, cricket or rugby, and I fear that it would be used first for goalline decisions, then for corners, then to answer a player every time he raises his hands and questions a decision. Football is an unpredictable game of human error, which is what makes it dramatic, and although standards of refereeing could be significantly improved, the controversy that they inevitably provide is something I would really miss if it were gone.

The time has come for Ireland to accept that, whether we like it or not, football can be very cruel, but on the pitch these things can happen, and maybe the next decision will go in their favour. If they really can't let it go, then surely their battle is to ensure the authorities prevent this kind of injustice from happening again, not to be awarded entry into a tournament they didn't qualify for in the first place.