Former Republic of Ireland defender Richard Dunne claimed Thierry Henry's gesture when he scored with his hand against the Irish was to look like a nice guy.
Arsenal legend Henry famously scored with his hand for France in the 2010 World Cup Qualifiers to knock out Ireland.
The Irish have never gotten over the incident, especially when Henry sat beside Dunne after the final whistle to try and play down what he had done.
Dunne told L'Equipe: "He felt regret and told me he had handballed it. I was thinking, 'why are you telling me this?' Could you not have told the referee a few minutes ago? It was a difficult moment for me because I was dejected from our elimination, and his admission made it even worse for me."
Asked if he would have done the same, he added: "Absolutely not (I wouldn't have done the same thing). What Henry did at that moment was a bit of showmanship. A way to show that he was a nice guy and that he wanted to apologize It was nonsense."