It wasn’t an incorrect call by the ref. He didn’t see it. All he saw was a goal. He missed and the linesmen missed the offisde when the kick was taken.

Equaly, If the goal by Gallas had been disallowed – Ireland still had to score to go through or else win on penalty kicks.

The Irish weren’t whinging compared to the media and fans in the UK and in other countries. Is there now a certain level of complaint that should be aired and then people have to stop? Talk about a dangerous precedent.

Australia were desperately unlucky last WC, but we never took our whingeing to remotely near the level the Irish are at now. It’s out of control and your mob have lost all objectivity. A replay for an incorrect call? Talk about a dangerous precedent.

Beverage through the nose question, James.

Yes, yes and probably not everybody are the respective answers.

Pretty much the same as with the Irish and this predicament.

Yes this decision went against Ireland. But a little beforehand, France should have had a penalty when the Irish keeper grabbed Anelka’s left ankle. Every replay from every angle showed this. Yes, there was some showmanship from Anelka. But it was without doubt a penalty.

How has everyone missed that? Getting the Henry goal WAS karma coming back to France, to atone for the earlier howler AGAINST them.

Australia were equally as robbed last WC, and did we bleat and whine and demand a replay like the Irish?

As for Henry’s actions, that’s a different issue. The sport needs a video ref for off sides where a goal is scored, and maybe for other crucial decisions too, like penalties. It also needs a citing commissioner to suspend attackers for the dive the ref missed.

Start suspending players for things like that and watch their actions change.

Touch the ref and automatic red is another. run at the ref and yellow, touch him and red. Simple, no dispute. The manhandling of refs is a disgrace.

And how is Henry’s handball any worse than 2,000 dives that happen every weekend in say Serie A?

Why mention his “Gilette stablemates” if you wanted to talk about “how different sports would deal with a blatant act of cheating from one of its superstars”? They hardly need the free publicity and still, you haven’t even commented on how the reaction would be in the golf or tennis world, you’ve asked a pointless rhetorical question that has nothing to do with the topic.

Now it’s true that a few of the Irish actually stopped playing, expecting the ref to pick up the obvious handball – but we have to admit that that’s a problem in itself (that the Irish didn’t play the whistle).

I’m pretty confident that if it had been the Irish doing the handballing, the ref would have seen it like a watermelon smashing over someone’s head.

If FIFA didn’t get it right 23 years ago, it does not mean it should be wrong forever. If it was the right decision 23 years ago, it does not mean it is now.

About diving, it’s the same case. Look, it’s not every single dive or handball that should be punished. There are different degrees. In Henry’s case, it was the second touch that deserve a punishment. It was obviously deliberated. The first one is a matter of interpretation. A dive can be an obvious dive or a dubious one. If there are margin for doubts, there are no margin for punishment.

The real problems here are:

A) The position of the referee – The Linesman was never going to be able to see it although correctly positioned, it was the referee who was standing nowhere and missed it
B) Handball is in itself a judgement call, if the referee saw the first incident, he might have allowed play to go on as it was ball-to-hand and the second one happened a split second afterwards and the ball obscured Henry’s hand, how was he meant to see it?
C) Why the hell do we expect referees to not make mistakes in big games? I bet Henry has played in more than one game where the referee missed a handball and Henry’s team lost. Ref’s are human, whether it is a league match or the WC, they are every bit as likely to make a mistake.
D) Blame the Irish defenders and keeper
E) How many times has Henry been called off-side or adjudged to have fouled someone and thus had a goal disallowed? More than than 1, these things even themselves out in sport.

How do you think Golf would react if Woods kicked his ball out of the rough to get a better lie at the US Masters?
How would tennis respond if Federer caught the ball then tossed it up to make his return more convenient..at Wimbledon?

Personally I dont buy into the whole, world is different now so grow up and deal with it philosophy that you are suggesting.

He’ll have to live with it a little longer.

UEFA tried to make an example out of Eduardo and diving is a bigger problem than handballs which might go unnoticed yet look how that blew up in their face.

What’s the difference?! It was a goal anyway, it decided the match, it put Ireland away form WC Finals…

FIFA can’t start to punish individuals

It does all the time! It suspended Maradona past week because he said thing outrageous. Why not punish Henry for total lack of Fair Play? One of many punishment functions is to educate. It would be very educative, not only for Henry but everyone who would think that action was a good idea. The message would be as clear as possible: you can pass your team through, but you will miss the party!

Henry didn’t score, he stopped the ball from escaping him with his hand, poked it back across the keeper and Gallas scored. If Ireland had of defended it right or if Given had of parried, both of which should have happened, Ireland would have been through.

FIFA can’t start to punish individuals, replaying a match is a big maybe but retrospectively taking their officiating down to individual players to right wrongs, well it’s absurd to say the least.

To me, the case is similar to doping. It was an offence to Fair Play, he acted ilegally to get an adventage over an opponent. But I wouldn’t need to go that far. Adriano, in Italy’s Serie A, was suspended because he’s scored handing the ball. The score counted, the match was upheld, but the player was punished. Exactly the same case.

I was thinking about the topic of punishment earlier. If Henry receives no response for his actions (hidden from the ref) then this perpetuates the problem for the game.

But there may be no precedent to do anything, so let’s consider the following hypothesis:

Let’s say in the next game between Ireland and France e.g. Euro ‘12 qualifier, , Richard Dunne decides to exact revenge. He clatters Henry, and unseen to the ref, gives him a serious injury. Ireland go on to win the game.

Footage afterwards shows what the ref missed. Should anything happen to Dunne, after it’s discovered that Henry will be out for four months? Or do people just say that’s football, the ref missed it, these things happen all the time in football. And everybody knows why it happened.

When questioned, Trapatoni just shrugs, and says the ref made a mistake, I don’t why we’re getting the blame for it.

Henry cheated. Cheated the referees, and the Irish team. Full stop.

Move on.

What goes around, will come around.

All sports work like that, in cricket they seem to deal with it better than football. Obviously there was a lot more riding on this game than in other matches but the referee is human, whether it be a league match or the WC final, he’s every bit as likely to make a mistake.