France striker Thierry Henry admits he intentionally handled the ball to set up William Gallas' equalizing goal, sending France to the World Cup at Ireland's expense after an intense 1-1 draw on Wednesday.
With Ireland leading 1-0 and the match level on aggregate deep into the first period of extra time, France won a free kick and Henry twice handled the ball - stopping it going out of play, then controlling it - before setting up Gallas for a header.
After the match, the Barcelona striker said Swedish referee Martin Hansson was the main culprit for not spotting the infringement.
"I will be honest, it was a handball. But I'm not the ref," Henry said. "I played it. The ref allowed it. That's a question you should ask him."
After winning 1-0 in Dublin on Saturday, France won 2-1 on aggregate, and will play in its fourth straight World Cup.
Ireland failed to qualify, as in 2006. But Henry would not express any sympathy for the dejected Irish, preferring instead to pinpoint his own team's recent problems.
"We suffered for two years, we have been having some problems with our press, our fans, with other people," Henry said. "It would have been better to do it in another way, but as I said, I'm not the ref."
France struggled over both games, winning 1-0 at Croke Park with a deflected goal from Nicolas Anelka, and Henry praised Giovanni Trapattoni's resilient team.
"If they had got through it wouldn't have been robbery (lucky). We have a lot of respect for this team," Henry said. "We knew they play long and like a physical battle. You saw tonight that they are a very good team. I played eight years in England and I can tell you they are."
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