Thierry Henry will not face any punishment for his controversial "Hand of God" assist against the Republic of Ireland in last November's World Cup play-off second leg after Fifa ruled that the France striker's offence could not be "regarded as a serious infringement".

The choice of words jarred horribly with many Ireland supporters but the disciplinary committee of world football's governing body went on to state that "there was no legal foundation to consider the case".

This was despite Fifa's president, Sepp Blatter, describing as "blatant unfair play" the incident in which Henry handled the ball before passing it to William Gallas to bundle in the goal that sent France rather than Ireland to the World Cup finals in South Africa, after they won the tie 2-1 on aggregate. The Swedish referee, Martin Hansson, failed to spot the cheating.

There were calls from the Football Association of Ireland for the tie to be replayed but, when Fifa ruled that it would not be feasible, the course to deflation was set. The FAI did not ask Fifa to pursue an individual sanction against Henry and many people in Ireland, reduced to resignation over the saga, regarded the move as little more than a PR stunt.

Those who continued to rage were not prepared to believe that Fifa would make an example out of Henry and suspend him from the finals in the summer, and the final word arrived with Fifa's official statement today.

It pointed to the disciplinary committee being bound by process, and the result was Henry being put in the clear. The Barcelona striker will hope the decision marks an end to one of the most heated controversies of last year and of his own career. He said that it had made him consider his international future.

Article 77a of Fifa Disciplinary Code states that the disciplinary committee is responsible for "sanctioning serious infringements which have escaped the match officials' attention". Henry's handball clearly escaped the attention of Hansson and his assistants, yet it could not be described as "serious" – a term which is defined in Article 47 of the code and which, curiously, covers handballs intended to deny a goal, but not those involved in creating one.

The statement read: "The disciplinary committee reached the conclusion that there was no legal foundation for the committee to consider the case because handling the ball cannot be regarded as a serious infringement as stipulated in article 77a of the Fifa disciplinary code. There is no other legal text that would allow the committee to impose sanctions for any incidents missed by match officials."

In response to Fifa's decision, the Ireland defender Sean St Ledger said it had set a dangerous precedent by not punishing Henry. "I don't want players to get banned, I'm not a fan of that," he told the BBC. "But [the decision] promotes 'if you can get away with it, do it'. I've seen [the incident] again today and I still think he intentionally, the second time, handballed it."

His fellow Ireland international Kevin Kilbane said: "If Fifa had decided to ban him for one or two games in the finals it would have opened them up to too many problems, so they had no choice but to bottle it.

"It is not a surprise and I did not expect anything else. I suppose they would be wondering where it would stop. If they had taken action against Henry, they would be under pressure to act against any player guilty of deliberate handball and that was never going to happen."

In Ireland, last November's game and the controversy that ensued led to embarrassment, when it was revealed that the FAI wanted to be invited to South Africa as the World Cup's 33th team, and contempt when Fifa suggested that they pick up an ambiguous moral compensation award at the Ballon d'Or awards ceremony. The invitation was declined.

The FAI has said that it wants measures to be implemented to avoid similar flashpoints in the future. There will be opportunities for it to lobby ahead of the meeting in March of the International Football Association Board, which considers changes to football's laws. Closure over Henry will take further time. It moved a step closer yesterday.