‘Hand of Payne’ infuriates Herbert
By Liam FitzGibbon, 14 Mar 2010 Liam FitzGibbon is a Roar Pro
- Tagged:
- A-League, Chris Payne, football, Ricki Herbert, Sydney FC, Wellington Phoenix
Wellington Phoenix coach Ricki Herbert couldn’t hide his disgust after a handball controversy involving Sydney FC striker Chris Payne in Saturday’s A-League preliminary final at the Sydney Football Stadium.
In scenes reminiscent of Diego Maradona’s famous “hand of God” and Thierry Henry’s more recent “hand of Frog” goal, Payne appeared to use his forearm to score a crucial goal in Sydney’s win, which put them into next week’s grand final against Melbourne.
Payne knocked the ball in from a Sung-Hwan Byun free kick to put Sydney 2-1 up in the 30th minute after coming on as a substitute for the injured John Aloisi.
Sydney went on to win 4-2 but Herbert and Phoenix captain Andrew Durante were filthy after the match, claiming it changed the course of the game.
Payne claimed the handball was unintentional, but Herbert questioned his ethics, claiming it was “three times worse” than Henry’s famous goal for France which denied Republic of Ireland a World Cup berth.
“It’s dreadful, come on,” Herbert said.
“Who’s going to apologise for that? At the end of the day it’s just not acceptable at this level of football, irrespective of what the result might have been at the end of the day.
“It’s poor and I think for a player to do that is unacceptable as well.
“You’ve got some comparisons around the world now, but that one’s three times as bad.
“I don’t know as a club you’ve got to consider what your ethics are like and if accepting of that then so be it.
“Why wasn’t it shown again on the big screen? Every other goal …
“It’s extremely disappointing … no different I think from how the Irish felt.”
Durante said he was certain the goal should have been disallowed.
“I saw it live, I ran straight to the linesman, I knew 100 per cent it was handball,” said Durante, who scored Wellington’s opener.
“It’s pretty funny that one.
“Such a big game, such a big occasion and something like that changes the game, it’s disappointing.
The former Newcastle defender called for more professionalism from A-League referees.
Sydney FC coach Vitezslav Lavicka said Payne admitted to a handball but said it was unintentional.
“I didn’t see it but we spoke about it a couple of moments after the game in the changing room and he said he missed the ball with his head and played an unintentional hand ball,” Lavicka said.
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PB said | March 14th 2010 @ 6:54am | Report comment
It undoubtedly changed the shape of the game, neutralising an equaliser and leaving Sydney 2-1 up until only 28 minutes were left. It was disgusting, intentional or not, he should have fessed up. It was the 30 minute mark, what, was he scared Sydney wouldn’t get another chance? a cowardly, cowardly act. The game has to take their precious goals seriously. He should be stood down, suspended for a year, whatever. Hit these cheats’ pockets, make them think twice.
Tifosi said | March 14th 2010 @ 7:32am | Report comment
Unintentional or not, he knew it hit his arm and claimed it by celebrating wildly.
That makes him a cheat and in the same category as Henry.
MV Dave said | March 14th 2010 @ 8:06am | Report comment
Very disappointing incident, especially as the game was in the balance at the time. Who will be the first player to ‘put up their hand’ (sorry about the pun) and tell the officials it wasnt a genuine goal? Is it Payne’s call to tell the officials or should they receive help from the 4th official via TV monitor on the sideline? How long would it take for a 4th official to call the Ref on his headset and say it wasnt a goal? Certainly changed the course of the match…but if its any consulation WP folks MV will make sure SFC dont prosper from this injustice.
BTW SFC played the better but their will will be forever tainted.
CB said | March 14th 2010 @ 8:54am | Report comment
To all you NZ lovers don’t start claiming that it was cheating because if tha’ts the case then your NZ cricket team is no better by jumping up and down making a song and dance out of taking a wicket in yesterdays game with the ball clearly coming off Ricky Pontings helmet. Now did the NZ players own up to their cheating, no and you saw the grins they gave on their faces knowing they got away with that one. Dont blame the players, blame the game, because it is far bigger than they are.
Ora said | March 14th 2010 @ 11:48am | Report comment
I’ll put it this way in the Cricket there was nothing riding on it except some dented pride.
The Football match was huge as so much was reliant on the end result. SFC would have won in my personal opinion anyway they just looked like a better side all round.
But what about that absolutely pathetic crowd for a final match what a shame, and they are dubbed the glamour club I guess Sydneysiders don’t think they are anything special
punter said | March 14th 2010 @ 11:58am | Report comment
Totally agree with you Ora about the crowds. I was there last night, the game was awesome & the atmopshere was huge. It’s just a shame the Sydney football fans don’t support this team, ABSOLUTLY PATHETIC.
Ora said | March 14th 2010 @ 5:10pm | Report comment
Certainly is crazy, here they are the glitziest club in all the land in a city of 4.39 million people more and they pull a pathetic 13,000, Wellington a city of just 350,000 has a sell out of 30,000.
The FFA will be thanking its lucky stars that the Nix did host two home finals matches as it certainly bolstered their (FFA) bank balances.
DERBY COUNTY FC said | March 14th 2010 @ 8:55am | Report comment
Yeah it was handball but like all sports it’s the referee that referees the match not the players. If the ref didn’t see then so what, yeah it is cheating, i’m not defending that but players cheat all the time…dive, feign injury, try and get one over the ref for 90 minutes and one got by him. It sucks, i’d be angry if i was a ‘Nix supporter but football is littered with 1000′s of cheating incidents. I didn’t see any MV players fess up to the fact that the ball hit McFlynns face and not his arm last week, sometimes it goes your way and other times it doesn’t.
JM said | March 14th 2010 @ 10:45am | Report comment
Wellington were on top at that stage,everyone new it was hand ball except the guy in the middle,time for a video ref or video replay facility I think.I don’t think you can blame payne,it is the referee at fault.wellington didn’t play as well as they have been with ifill off his game so I don’t think wellington would of won the game anyway.
Rob said | March 14th 2010 @ 9:08pm | Report comment
PB said | March 14th 2010 @ 10:55am | Report comment
Derby, um – you are defending cheating.
CB – I’m talking about scoring a goal with your hand in football, which is a travesty entirely different to the cheating that goes on in cricket. If you want to talk about cricket, you talk about cricket.
DERBY COUNTY FC said | March 14th 2010 @ 7:29pm | Report comment
No i’m not defending cheating at all, it’s the lowest of the low, all i’m saying is that it is up to the ref to ref the game not the players. Sometimes it goes your way and sometimes it doesn’t. If one doesn’t think that cheating occurs in every single football match, every single week then they are naive.
punter said | March 14th 2010 @ 11:29am | Report comment
PB,
Is DFC defending cheating? Maybe he is, he is telling you these sort of incidents happens all the time in football & in most sports. Sometimes it goes for you & sometimes it doesn’t. Like week it went against SFC, didn’t see too many opposition players telling everyone that the ball hit his face.
Wish football could be played honestly as you wish, but that unfortunately is not reality.
CB said | March 14th 2010 @ 11:39am | Report comment
PB – Cheating is cheating no matter what the sport is, just because its football doesn’t make it any worse than cheating in any other sport.It would be foolish of me to argue with you when you think the only travesty to do with cheating is in a game you obviously care a lot about, get over it.
dasilva said | March 14th 2010 @ 1:32pm | Report comment
I think the game needs video referee.
There’s no way you can argue that by checking every goal scored for offsides and fouls will distrupt the game as the time it takes to celebrate the goal gives plenty of opportunity for the video referee to see a replay and cancel the goal.