(Top) Maradona’s Hand of God; Henry’s hand touches the ball. (AFP)

Paris, Nov. 19: When the referee allowed Diego Maradona’s Hand of God goal in the 1986 World Cup quarter-finals, the football world shrugged and left such unfathomable matters in, well, the hands of God.

But after France’s Thierry Henry last night helped his team into the 2010 World Cup with a blatant handball, his effort was being pilloried as the “Hand of Frog (a pejorative term for the French)” and calls rang out for the use of on-field video replays — even a rematch.

Henry twice handled the ball to prevent it going out of play, then passed to defender William Gallas who headed in from inside the Irish box. Swedish referee Martin Hansson allowed the 103rd-minute goal — which came after a gallant Ireland had cancelled out a 0-1 first-leg deficit and taken the game into extra time — giving France a 2-1 aggregate win.

With cries of “cheat” ringing in his ears from Irish fans, Henry emerged from the dressing room to own up but tried to palm his infringement off as an accident.

“I will be honest, it was a handball…. The ball hit my hand. But I’m not the ref. I played it, the ref allowed it. That’s a question you should ask him,” he said.

French sports daily L’Equipe was almost apologetic as it confessed the result “is not enough to erase the uneasy feeling we had last night”.

Its front-page headline said “The Hand of God” in a reference to Maradona’s goal against England, but calls for the hand of technology and a rematch suggested that 23 years on, the game was getting a little fed up with cheating and the authorities’ resistance to technology in a digital age.

While football has set the standards in professionalism and marketing in the world of sport, it has, unlike cricket, refused to use video review technology because that would slow down the game.

World body Fifa, however, has recognised the problem by experimentally introducing two assistant referees, in addition to the referee and linesmen, in the Europa League to exclusively watch the two penalty areas where most of the cheating and refereeing errors happen.

Ireland’s Italian coach Giovanni Trapattoni today called on Fifa and European governing body Uefa to consider video-replay reviews because the injustice suffered by Ireland “can be repeated in the future”.

The Irish football association asked Fifa to follow its own 2005 precedent, when it had declared invalid the result of a World Cup qualification match between Uzbekistan and Bahrain following a critical refereeing error.

Irish lawmaker Joe McHugh said France should follow the 1999 precedent set by Arsenal’s French manager Arsene Wenger — under whom Henry has spent most of his career — who volunteered to replay an FA Cup match after Arsenal won on an unfair goal.

Ireland assistant manager Liam Brady and several players did what would have seemed unthinkable to the English in 1986 — they appealed to their opponents’ sense of honour.

“If the game’s going to survive… if we’re going to have integrity and dignity in the world game, the game should be replayed,” Brady said.

There could also be another change in attitude since 1986 — Ireland may for the first time begin to sympathise with England. For 23 years, Ireland and Scotland have wallowed in joy at Maradona’s fisted goal, with the Scottish town of Ayr opening a Hand of God pub. Many Scottish fans still wear “Maradona” and “86” on the back of their kit.

The usual excuses from the accused were all there too. Henry insisted he didn’t mean to touch the ball and had even told the referee about his infringement. “He said to me: ‘You are not the ref’,” Henry said.

France coach Raymond Domenech dusted off an old argument to defend cheating in sport: “These things even out.”

Trapattoni, however, said the issue was fair play. “I am upset for fair play because we are told many times about fair play. I go into schools to talk about fair play and tell the young kids that it’s important for their life.”

Ireland were the better side last night and squared the tie with Robbie Keane’s 32nd-minute goal, but despite 90 minutes of domination, failed to convert any of several opportunities to seal the tie.

Some Irish fans will get their money back from bookies, though. Bookmakers William Hill said they would refund stake money to all punters who backed Ireland to be “as fair as possible to everyone”.

Irish left back Kevin Kilbane accused the referee of lying. He said he had asked Hansson after the final whistle if he had seen the incident.

“He said: ‘I can 100 per cent say it wasn’t handball’. When he said that to me, I knew he was just lying because he hadn’t even seen it.”