Time to end the delusion. Nothing is going to happen. We are out of the World Cup.

Thierry Henry is going to South Africa. So is Martin Hansson. The French are not going to do us any favours.

Giovanni Trapattoni, who has been around the block a bit, knows more than most on this. He is the one who took the more interesting tack: explain the choice of referees.

Martin Hansson has a previous -- the 95th minute penalty he awarded Liverpool against Athletic Madrid in the Champions League.

FIFA also have a previous, having ordered Uzbekistan to replay a 2006 World Cup qualifier against Bahrain after a wrong decision by the referee.

But nothing will change.

The real answer is that FIFA and the French are not interested in a replay because they got the result they wanted.

Even if the French wanted to do us a favour, FIFA would not let them.

FIFA's eager response that every match in the future would be subject to a replay any time a referee misses an incident.

That is not entirely true. Incidents of the magnitude of Henry's hand only come round every couple of decades.

With Uzbekistan, they say the referee was guilty of wrongly applying the rules rather than missing an offence.

He awarded an indirect free-kick against Uzbekistan when one of their players encroached into the Bahrain penalty area as the Uzbeks successfully converted a penalty.

The correct interpretation would have been to order the penalty to be retaken.

FIFA want to incident to go away. According to the official website, it never happened in the first place. Their insistence on seeding was a bigger cheat than Henry could every aspire to.

We can expect only the most basic changes as a result of Henry's handiwork.

The system is likely to change as a result of La Main De Dieu, with either technology, as called for by players representative associations, or an extra goal line assistant, called for by UEFA president Michel Platini and being trialled in this season's Europa League.

It is not even certain that this will happen, because Ireland were the victims. If France had been the victims, change would be more likely.

Legal options are being explored. One lawyer was suggesting a case for fraud before the European court. But it is highly unlikely that the FAI would pursue the sort of court case that has brought GAA championships to a halt in recent years.

There are reasons why we should forget about it and get on with it, and they are closer to home. Every weekend throughout the length and breadth of the country players get away with blatant breaches of the law on pitches up and down the country.

The FAI who were bleating about a replay are the same FAI who keep telling clubs that they cannot expect a replay if a referee makes a mistake.

We are teaching our players in all codes to sulk and complain instead of getting on with it.

Why were we in the position where a disputed goal put us out of the World Cup.?

It is not a popular thing to say in the current climate, but shouldn't we have scored the second goal to ensure our qualification?

If we had not done that there wouldn't be a word about Thierry Henry this morning.