A sleepless night last night as Paris' sizeable Algerian population celebrated their country's qualification for the 2010 World Cup (their first since 1986) and victory over their arch rivals, Egypt, by driving around and blowing their horns until dawn. Made me all nostalgic for the much-maligned England fans who at least have the good grace to collapse in a drunken stupor around midnight. There may have been a few French fans tooting as well as France also qualified last night but the circumstances of their victory over Ireland left little to be proud of. A team of France's calibre should never have been in the play-offs in the first place, they were outplayed for much of the match and their winning goal came after a flagrant handball from their captain and former Arsenal legend, Thierry Henry. It appears that neither the referee nor his assistants saw the handball but as the commentators on French television pointed out Henry could have admitted to what he had done. I got the impression from the post match commentary that the French were rather ashamed of what had happened. The various pundits watching the match spoke of little but the Henry incident and former World Cup winner Bixente Lizarazu couldn't even bring a smile to his face when asked for his reaction. So a shame-faced qualification for France who, like Milton's Satan, carry hell within them in the form of their atrocious (and atrociously arrogant) manager, Raymond Domenech; defeat last night would have seen the automatic termination of Domenech's contract. The TV coverage ended (as always in the banana republic that is Sarkozy's France) with an interview with the President who pointed out that even people who don't follow football will want to celebrate France's qualification for the World Cup. Perhaps that should have been "only people who don't follow football"...