Following the World Cup qualifying match between France and Ireland, an explosion of outrage has dominated the sporting headlines about Thierry Henry’s ‘accidental’ handling of the ball in the match which gave France their winning goal.
‘Hand of God’, ‘Hand of Frog’, ‘Cheat!’, ‘Thief!’, are just some of the more restrained headlines across the back pages of Irish, English, and French newspapers and websites.
For those not in the know, the WC qualifier second leg began with the French playing in Paris having the advantage of a 0-1 away goal lead, courtesy of an own-goal deflection.
Their advantage didn’t last long with Robbie Keane scoring a well-deserved equaliser for the Irish in a game they had dominated up to that point.
The French came back into the game in the second half, but Ireland had plenty of chances to kill off the game before the 90 minutes were up.
Extra time began, and ten minutes in a free kick was awarded to the French inside the Irish area. As the ball was kicked, it was clear that two of the French players were offside – but the linesman’s flag stayed down.
The ball arrived in near the goal post where Thierry Henry was lurking shadowed by Ireland’s McShane. The ball fell on Henry’s left had side – it was going to go out, except Henry’s hand was in the way.
As the video shots demonstrate, the French striker moved his hand to hit the ball, and then hit it a second time to move the ball towards his swinging right foot. It hit, sailed over into the box where the waiting Gallas knocked it in. 1-1 and the French up 2-1 on aggregrate.
Cue celebrations from the French crowd many of whom had been booing their team up to that point, so dominant had the Irish side been for most of the game.
Despite protests from the Irish players, the ref awarded the goal and the game moved on. Even then, there were a couple of opportunities to get another goal but they didn’t happen.
At the end, players like Robbie Keane, Shay Given, Damien Duff, and Kevin Kilbane knew they had played their last World Cup game for their country – Duff cried in exasperation and disappointment at the outcome.
The media gave Henry a roasting. The French striker admitted he had handled the ball – or rather that the ball had hit his hand. But he said it was up to the ref to spot it, and it was his fault if he hadn’t seen it.
The hugely popular footballer did his reputation no good when he was seen sitting down on the ground beside Irish defender, Richard Dunne, and commiserating with him.
He spent the rest of the time after the match going around hugging Irish players with a hang-dog expression on his face. This contrasted sharply with his delighted celebrations when Gallas had scored. Such faux-contrition did not go down well with his fans or football followers around the world.
The more sober-suited commentators have said that Ireland’s misfortune should be the straw that finally breaks the camel’s back in pressuring the football authorities to bring in video replay to the game to solve incidents like these.
Will Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini be listening, or are they simply celebrating that their plans to ensure the big names arrive in South Africa next year have worked with the seeding of the teams for the play-offs?
Like most football shockers, the inevitable furore is likely to be followed by a global shrug of the shoulders – Gallic style – and the usual refrain – that’s football for you, and we all move on.
But the Irish haven’t given up – just yet.
The Football Association of Ireland has written a formal complaint to FIFA saying that the incident was seen by millions of fans around the world, and in the interests of Fair Play the match should be replayed.
The loss of qualification has probably cost the FAI 20 million euro, though FAI Chief Executive John Delaney, said it wasn’t about the money – it was simply about seeing that Fair Play was seen to be done.
Delaney has put it up to FIFA and to the French Football Federation to see if they will accede to their request. The Ireland assistant manager, former Arsenal player, Liam Brady, and many Irish players have supported him.
Radio show phone-ins, newspaper and TV stations have covered the issue all day. The pressure on the French is growing. And the Irish Government has stepped in with Justice Minister, Dermot Ahern, also saying that there should be a replay.
The French public have joined the clamour too. During one evening drive-time Irish radio show, there was an interview with the editor of Le Monde in Paris.
They had run a poll this morning asking who deserved to go the World Cup – France or Ireland.
Over 80,000 French people responded to the poll, with over 88% saying that Ireland deserved to go through. French people are embarrassed by the manner of their qualification, and their distaste for Henry and French manager, Domenech is growing.
The Le Monde editor nearly caused a further public outburst when he reported that French people had voted for Domenech to be replaced by current Ireland manager, Giovanni Trappatoni to guarantee them success in South Africa next year.
The French love irony. It looks like this one will keep going for another few days.
Fair play to the French. They really know how to handle themselves in football.
Dublin Dave
Guest
Sheek, On your point about whether there was collusion to send France through at the expense of Ireland: I don't think there was on the part of the referee. He could have given France a penalty in that match (NB I didn't say should, I said could) and he didn't. I do think it is self evident, however, that FIFA preferred some countries to qualify at the expense of others. That is why they decided as the qualifying competition came to a close that they would seed the playoffs to favour the countries with higher rankings. At the time they did this, it was clear France and Portugal were going to come second and there was also a fear that Germany might also finish in the runners up spot. (They didn't, as it happened, but it was a plausible scenario). France and Germany are two of the economic powerhouses of Europe and have large wealthy populations. TV interest in these countries is vital. Portugal, not one of Europe's economic powerhouses, does have if not the world's best player at the moment, at least the game's most glamorous and marketable commodity in Christiana Ronaldo. (Now that David Beckham is well into his 30s and in danger of losing his hair) So they seeded the playoffs to keep France, Portugal, and Russia (which might have been Germany) apart. Greece also crept in there because of the criteria they used but the overall intent was clear. To be honest, if they were in naked accountant mode I don't think they would have been that disappointed had Ireland qualified. The Republic's population is only 4 million but the Irish diaspora around the world is very much larger and it is shown that Americans called O'Malley and Australian's called O'Rourke (or even Sheehy ;) ) can be inveigled to look out for the land of their fathers'. On that note, I was absolutely delighted to see that the scheme blew up in FIFA's face when the mighty Russia, population 120 million and with oodles of oil and gas gazzillionaires like Roman Abramobvich got dumped out by Slovenia, population about 2million. It just goes to show that sport can upset the best laid plans of mice and men and marketing types. However, in the interests of transparency fairness and common sense, I think soccer has to introduce some form of technical assistance for referees. Every other sport does. There is no excuse to avoid it any longer. to summarise, I don't think the French goal was down to a corrupt referee, but a similar incident in the future might be. And if they are serious about the game's integrity, they have got to give match officials recourse to the same visibility that every couch potato at home has. Oh and I think the idea of a replay is ridicuolous, for the record.
Pothale
Guest
Sheek. I agree with the thrust of what you're saying except for one small important point. You said that you don't agree that Henry cheated. There I differ with you. He did cheat. Whether other players do it is irrelevant, he still cheated. He got caught and there seems to be this moral ambivalence about whether what he did was wrong. What's disappointing is that a lot of players ( and some fans) believe that what he did was acceptable ( except he shouldn't have got caught.) I don't want a replay, etc. I'd just like a player when caught fair and square to be honest enough toadmit it, instead of the prevarication we've had from Henry. And from his manager who seems to think nothing wrong happened. End of.
AndyRoo
Guest
Oikee came back yesterday and it is one full days drive from Toowomba to southern NSW. They must have gone crocodile shooting together :)
dasilva
Roar Guru
Hey Pip, Did you had a break? I've written about two articles since you last commented on the roar. Tell me what you think? I finally took your suggestion about year or two ago and wrote the article about a new world cup qualifying system.
Pothale
Guest
He did. If you look at the footage, he hits the ball a second time with hand. It's deliberate and with intent. It's cheating.
Pippinu
Roar Guru
Freud dunno Check this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQGcODADJeM&feature=popular' (La main de Thierry Henry Match Irlande France Qualification coupe du monde 2010) Check out some of th stills of him almost guiding the ball down to his foot aussie rules style (except, instead of using his left, he quickly adjusts on to his right).
Freud of Football
Roar Guru
How is that a lie? I don't think Henry, going by the replays, tried to stop the ball with his hand, it was pretty clearly ball to hand for mine (its a free kick coming in pretty quick, he was at the back and wouldn't have known until late he was going to get there) but as it changed the course of the ball and resulted in a goal it should have been awarded as a handball.
ABCDEFG
Guest
I can understand why FIFA hasn't agreed to a replay it's the rules, but I can't understand FIFA's position on cheatingerrors and allowing it to be ok. Now FIFA must do something about cheating in the future to at least show they have done something about it, a goal referee, video technology, something that will improve the possibility of cheating or errors made by refs.
dasilva
Guest
Video replays does have a role in Football as long as people used in in a limited way during natural break in play Such as every goal is reviewed by video referee. So when the ball crosses the net there is a natural break in play and therefore there will be no unnecessarily break in play. The video referee reviews whether there is any offside or fouls during the play and the video umpire can let the goal go ahead or cancel it. IF you are worried so much about disturbing the flow in football. Then put a time limit on how long the video referee can make the decision. Another way, is whenever the referee blows for a penalty. Again a natural break in play. The video referee can overule it. Since it takes time to prepare the penalty kick, it's a natural break in play. Of course people may complain that if the referee doesn't blow for a penalty then a foul will go unchecked which is true. However the point of video umpires is to not remove errors just reduce errors. If we can prevent unnecessary penalties then thats a step forward in the game. Also this could be used as a crack down on diving as well Therefore you can introduce video referees without disturbing the flow of the game
Luke W
Guest
I think cheat is a bit harsh for people that break the rules of a sport during the game. Leave the decisions for the referees/umpires, and leave the word cheat for people that take performance enhancing drugs or fix matches.
Joe FC
Guest
Good article pothole I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I was very disappointed in Henry's post match comments saying that the ball hit his hand. That was a lie & does him no credit.
Colin N
Guest
"Aiden McGeady got sent off for diving a week after the Eduardo/Celtic incident was blown out of all proportion but the British media, but there was precious little mention of it." Hmmmm, I wonder why?
pothale
Guest
The British media sympathise with Keane? Which Keane? Roy? You must be joking. The most famous and high profile Irish player of the last two decades has been pilloried many times. Aiden McGeady the world renowned footballer who's captain of his country, has won many medals, and is paraded in numerous global advertising campaigns? I'm really suprised the media didn't focus on him. You're still barking. Not sure which tree anymore.
Dan
Guest
Actually there are less contentious decisions thanks to the video ref I think you'll find. Sure there are still a few line ball calls that are still very difficult even with the technology, but on the whole the number of contentious decisions are much less now in both codes of Rugby and a blatant foul like the french handball (for arguments sake we'll say a blatant knock-on before a try in Rugby) would never have been awarded points. But that said, soccer is definitely about the flow and bad refereeing decisions are just a part of the game that people accept as being a necessary evil like diving. In that sense Irish soccer fans can't really be too upset because even if they dominated the whole match and lost unfairly, that's not important because the "rub of the green" is just as important an aspect of the sport as skill itself (or so my soccer comrades assure me when I complain about the number of seemingly unjust results the sport produces).
Fisher Price
Guest
Okay then, home nations & Ireland... What I'm saying is that the English media sympathise with 'good honest pros' like P Neville, Butt, Duff and Keane over pesky foreigners. Aiden McGeady got sent off for diving a week after the Eduardo/Celtic incident was blown out of all proportion but the British media, but there was precious little mention of it.
Pothale
Guest
Except Ireland isn't part of the Home Nations. And Ireland has received plenty of shellacking from British media particularly around World Cups - England B team, etc and in British soccer there's only national team the British media go ballistic over - England. You're barking up the wrong tree.
Fisher Price
Guest
Cheating happens every week in every league in virtually every match. You can't pick on one instance and inflict an arbitrary ban. Interestingly, if the b oot had been on the other foot. ie. if one of the 'home nations' had a player who diod what Henry did, we'd here hardly anything about it from the British media. Rooney, for instance, does whatever he likes without a the subsequent knee-jerk character assassinations in print. Gerrard cheats very regularly. The double standard is sickening.
Fisher Price
Guest
Or an Ngog... or one of Gerrard's many many?
sheek
Guest
Pothale, Read my last sentence. Do you know of any player in any sport who will voluntarily put his hand up for a penalty offence, either intentional or accidental? This is the way of the world. It isn't right, but that's the way it is. Wasn't it English & Lions rugby great Martin Johnson who said recently that cheating was part & parcel of sport? If I were Thierry Henry, & I handled the ball twice, & neither the ref nor linesmen picked it up either time, I would think to myself, "how unbelievably lucky I am to get away with that". And that my friend, is the way of the world..... BTW, FIFA aren't saying handball is now OK. What they're implying is that the ref/linesmen failed to pick it up, which is where it should have been dealt with, on the field. Unfortunately, it was missed, & that is Ireland's bad luck, & France's good luck. I can understand your rage, & felt the same when I first realised what had happened. Unfortunately, life isn't always fair..... You could go over thousands of matches in soccer, rugby, rugby union, whatever, where a vital handball, or offside, or forward pass, or knock-on, was missed by the ref, which had a significant bearing on a particular match. It's acknowledged in virtually all sports, if any indiscretion isn't picked up at the time, on the filed by the ref/linemen, it is unfortunately bad luck for the loser. I'm not a fan of FIFA particularly either. But I'm not going to dump all the world's problem's in their lap because I might not like them, or sharpen my axe & blame every grievance I might harbour upon them as well..........
Freud of Football
Roar Guru
There have been plenty of dodgy games in FIFA regulated matches in the past. Some have even been confirmed to have been affected by bribes. I'm not saying that this match falls under that category but it's certainly not the first game to cause debate and most of the others haven't resulted in replays. I think most of Australia will say Grosso dived. If you're asking, was it an Eduardo then no, but if there was contact (and that's a big if) then it was minimal and he certainly wasn't shot the way he acted.