Ireland vs. France debacle raises questions

From everything I've read--there was no doubt about it. The Associated Press has used terms such as "clearly" and "obvious" to describe Henry's handball. As a journalism student, it is shocking to see a sentence like this in an AP article:

"In extra time, Henry twice handled the ball, then passed to William Gallas in the Irish penalty box for the deciding goal."

Normally, no matter how bad a call is, professional writers would say that Henry "appeared" to handle the ball-but that is not the case here.

So let's call it a missed call. What's FIFA to do with that information? Ireland is apparently calling for a replay, but is that really practical? The missed calls came in extra time--doesn't the old adage go that if you lose a game because of a missed call you didn't deserve to win anyway?

Besides, Ireland could have put the game away in regulation. Would a replay of the game even be justified? Imagine the hullabaloo if France won that game 3-0. The missed call would be largely forgotten, and soccer would be left vulnerable to have another situation happen again.

But then what if Ireland wins? A World Cup berth reversed? France would be outraged, and nobody wants the French outraged. In 2005, FIFA invalitaded the results of a World Cup qualifier between Uzbekistan and Bahrain--but the situation was entirely different as it was not a game that decided who qualified (neither team was in the World Cup).

It would seem then, that some kind of a rule change is in order. I've heard a few things tossed around. One suggestion has been to add an extra official behind each of the goals. Think back to the Zidane incident at the last World Cup. Had one of the linesmen not seen the headbutt, Zidane wouldn't have been sent off, so he'd have been able to take a penalty. This might have changed the outcome of a World Cup. So clearly, an extra pair of eyes can't hurt.

As with any missed call, replay has also been a suggestion, and it seems like it might be time--though it does pain me to say that. If ever there was a timeless sport, it is soccer, but how many more scenarios like this one are we going to need before we bite the bullet and implement replay.