Poor Ireland. Controversy is killing football.

Some quotes about the crucial playoff, which left me fuming.

''It was a handball, but I'm not the ref,'' he said on BBC Radio Five Live. ''The ball hit my arm, fell in front of me and I played it. The ref allowed it. That's a question you should ask him.''

Trapattoni said: ''I am not only disappointed, I am also sad. It is a bitter evening. It's a bitter situation. I would prefer to have gone out on penalties. I am sad because the referee had time to ask the linesman. I am sure he should have, and he could have confirmed it was handball.

''I am upset. We speak many times about fair play. I go to schools and speak about fair play. I speak with the young kids about sport. Its important in life. Everybody saw the game. You know what happened.''

After the match, an angry Keane lambasted FIFA's 11th hour decision to seed the World Cup play-off draw in favour of the big teams, which ultimately pitted the Irish against France, and the Ireland international claims FIFA president Sepp Blatter and his UEFA counterpart Michel Platini got the result they would have wanted.

The Tottenham Hotspur striker claims that when it emerged that established football powers such as France, Portugal and at one stage Germany could be involved in the play-offs, football's governing bodies quickly went back on their initial decision not to seed the knock-out ties.

"Of course it is an easy decision to do the seedings," Keane told BBC Radio Five Live. "They're all probably clapping hands, Platini sitting up there on the phone to Sepp Blatter, probably texting each other, delighted with the result, with France (getting through)."

Nothing more to say. What a big mess. Controversy is killing the beautiful game of football.