Overall I'm not inclined to believe the conspiracy theory - perhaps, at most,  the unconscious bias of favouring the home/bigger team as referees depend on the powers that be for future appointments.  There has been a pattern  of Ireland losing to controversial or wrong refering decissions at the final hurdle to qualifying for big tournaments, so I can see why some would harbour notions of conspiracy.

For instance Fifa changed the rules for the play-offs AFTER the eight teams in the pay-offs had been decided - from an open draw to a seeded draw - which meant the lower ranked teams like Ireland won't meet a higher ranked team like France, and the higher ranked teams couldn't meet each other.  In any other sphere of human activity, such a late changing of the rules to help the bigger players would be actionavble in the courts especially as it has revenue implications of many millions of Euros.

Fifa admitt5ed afterwards it had "made a mistake" in changing the rules after the teams had qualified - but it makes those sorts of "mistakes" all the time in order to maximise its income.

notes from no w here

Forgetting that referee errors go both ways -- standard procedure :-) (Also see South Korea-Italy, 2002.)

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}