Thierry Henry...

[guitarzan]

What the heck went on last night?!

Henry has come out today and said that he did handle the ball, but it was not his fault - it was the referee's for not picking him up for it!?

DISGRACE.

Hard luck Ireland...

[Henrik7]

He cheated and he knows it.

[Invisible]

There is nothing that can be done about it though. Unless a replay of the match arranged.

It's a shame

[bish667]

Never liked him since the France - Italy game (may not have been as my memory was bad but it was the same year as the zidane headbut) a few years back where he faked getting hit.

Agree he is a disgrace.

[~~Tides~~]

I think that the game should be replayed, or at least the extra time should be replayed or something. The implications of this showing millions of sport playing kids across the world that its ok to cheat is massive, and scandelous.

But I dont suppose anything will happen since FIFA/UEFA have got the result they wanted.

[The Pepsi Challenge]

It's the magnitude of what Henry has done this time that's sad - Maradona aside, I'm not sure I can remember an act of blatant cheating in the past that singlehandedly has won a game of such massive importance.

Cascarino was basically saying that if Henry had owned up straightaway he'd have been lauded throughout the sporting world for it. There are very few cases in football of it (Di Canio when the goalie was down is one along with Fowler) and certainly fewer still when owning up would have changed the course of a match/result.

Golfers and snooker players are obviously famous for calling fouls on themselves, etc., but this incident also reminded me of the Tour de France a few years ago when Lance Armstrong was taken down by a spectator at the beginning of a climb - rather than push on and press home an advantage (and almost certainly put himself in the yellow jersey with very few stages left), his biggest rival, Jan Ullrich, waited for him to catch up as it was sporting given Lance had done nothing wrong to fall behind. Obviously cycling has bigger cheating issues than this but I thought it was a relevant comparison.

[Metalattakk]

The annoying thing is that there seems to be no recourse after the event. Ireland can do nothing about this, it's happened and France/Henry has gotten away with it.

FIFA are happy that a major team has avoided missing out on the WC, even if their qualification goes right against their own FIFA Fair Play Code, point one of which is quoted below:

"Play fair. Winning is without value if victory has been achieved unfairly or dishonestly. Cheating is easy, but brings no pleasure. Playing fair requires courage and character. It is also more satisfying. Fair play always has its reward, even when the game is lost. Playing fair earns respect, while cheating only brings shame. Remember: it is only a game. And games are pointless unless played fairly."

[Invisible]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/8368100.stm

Irish wanting a replay.
My mates says "
Why are people shocked about the thierry henry incident? The French putting their hands up has been a national pastime since 1940"

[The Pepsi Challenge]

Cheat or paragon: how Thierry Henry could have handled it all so differently

by Richard Williams

Thierry Henry had about five seconds in which to decide to join the immortals. While William Gallas wheeled away from the point-blank header which gave France the lead over the Republic of Ireland during extra time in their World Cup play-off last night, Henry's reaction could have gone one of two ways.

In the act of controlling the ball before providing Gallas with a perfect cross, France's captain had handled it. Not once, but twice. The first time might have been almost inadvertent, a pardonable reflex action as it was about to go out of play. The second, in which he scooped the ball with his left hand, redirecting it to drop nicely on to his right foot, was clearly intentional.

Even there, it could be argued that an element of reflex was involved. But in the few seconds that followed, Henry had two options. He could pretend that he had not broken the most basic law of outfield play. Or he could take the opportunity to neutralise the effect of his reflexes. To erase an error. To right a wrong. To be a man.

The world, or quite a lot of it, was watching. His president was in the seat of honour in the Stade de France. Almost everyone important in French football had assembled to cheer the team on in this vital match. It was the perfect stage for an act of unselfishness, of honesty, of genuine sportsmanship.

Such incidents are not confined to the pages of history. In 1997 Robbie Fowler unsuccessfully pleaded with the referee to rescind the award of a penalty to Liverpool at Highbury after the whistle had been blown for a perceived foul on him by David Seaman. In 2000, while playing for West Ham, Paolo Di Canio stopped play by catching the ball when he saw that the opposition's goalkeeper, Paul Gerrard of Everton, was lying helpless in the penalty area after twisting his knee while clearing the ball. Last March, during a Romanian first division match between Rapid Bucharest and Otelul Galati, Costin Lazar of Rapid refused to take a penalty because he did not believe he had been fouled, and eventually the official agreed with him.

I don't know anything about Costin Lazar, but I do know that Fowler was a streetwise scally and that Di Canio, who once pushed the referee Paul Alcock to the ground after being shown a red card, was in the habit of exchanging Fascist salutes with his hometown supporters at Lazio. Those incidents shifted our perception of them. Some seed of goodness had to lurk within men capable of such essentially unselfish acts. And they are there forever, in black and white, on the public record.

We all know which way Henry decided to go. With a broad, exultant beam on his face, he raced away from the scene of the crime to join Gallas and their team-mates in celebration of a goal that all knew was likely to be decisive in the battle for a place in next summer's World Cup finals.

For this was no ordinary piece of cheating. National pride and tens of millions of euros were at stake. So much greater, then, would have been the admiration of a decision to own up. Instead Henry chose to go down a path which exposed not just his own human frailty but the paranoid fear of failure running through a French squad (and their manager) haunted by comparisons with the glories of the recent past.

Henry was a hopeless captain at Arsenal and he is a hopeless captain of France. On Wednesday he did not have the gumption to say, "OK, that wasn't a goal" – an admission on which the referee would have been obliged to act – "but we'll use the remaining quarter of an hour's play to demonstrate that we are better than the Irish and more deserving of a place in the final 32 in South Africa next year."

And, being Henry, he reacted to the final whistle not by celebrating with his team- mates but by making a show of going over and sitting down on the turf to commiserate with the dejected Richard Dunne, the most heroic of Irish players. He told Dunne that the Irish had deserved to win, and admitted that he had handled the ball. "But," he added, "I am not the referee."

No, mon brave, but you are the captain of France, the country that gave us the World Cup, and here you had the chance to show us what sport can mean – or, at least, what we tell our children it means.

To rank the incident in Paris alongside Diego Maradona's "Hand of God" in 1986 is misleading. That was a street kid's instinct, acclaimed by his compatriots as revenge for Antonio Rattín and the Malvinas. Henry may come from Les Ulis, a quartier difficile outside Paris, but he is a sophisticated man, and a much decorated one. A chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur should have done better – by his opponents, by himself, and by the game.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/b...france-ireland

[PantsMAN]

Cheat or paragon: how Thierry Henry could have handled it all so differently

SNIP

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/b...france-ireland

Absolutely no sympathy for anyone!!

It's about time soccer grew-up and used a video referee. That would sort out these incidents immediately.

Job done............

[The Angel Of Death]

Cant say fairer than that take in a video ref and give each team 3 calls to make a game if there that aggrieved with a situation let them call it and then it goes to the video ref however once all 3 calls have been made they have NO option to make anymore once there done there done

[tonkatojo]

Why should the Irish team get preferential treatment.

First they they get two votes on the Europe farce. now they want the rules changed in football. What have they got that the rest have not ?? ( besides the luck of the Irish ).

Can anyone really believe Blatter would budge or the Frenchman Plattini for that matter.

My opinion is Henry should be banned for cheating ( like the dive rule ) but unless the rules are changed for every team the result should stand.

[lister]

Its sad and wrong that they should be out of the tournament because of cheating.
Tierry Henri should own up and so should the authorities in football to save "The Game",which has gone down in my estimation since that match, to divers,cheats and rules which obviously are out of touch.
No wonder the Irish are up in arms about it...

[Amy-Winehouse]

[3of8]

This is how a reporter (Vikash Dhorasoo) from the French newspaper Le Monde sees it:

"And yesterday in front of millions of viewers a drama being played for a whole nation and that's what's great. It has mainly confirmed that football as life needs the breath of those moments that no one controls.

I hope the hand of Thierry always escape to the vigilance of the sole arbitrator on the ground as always escape the little thief the policeman on the corner of the street football is a sport and sport is not there to be fair. This is not always the best who wins, let alone the more ethical. There errors arbitration coaching (Raymond is a specialist). There are some who take drugs and other cheating. So, is it serious?"

(Apologies for the translation; done through Google web page translator)

I wonder how the French team will feel as they face their opponents next year? Heads held high?

[Amy-Winehouse]

Okay , how many of you complained when Joe Jordans hand ball won Scotland a penalty at Anfield in 1977 ??? It got us through to the world cup in Argentina.

How many of you laughed when the Diego maradona hand of god goal went in against the English? I laughed & danced about , Im not ashamed to say .

When Scotland played Italy a couple of years back, Barry Ferguson scored an offside goal & then the ref gave Italy the free kick that never was, from the resultant free kick the Italians scored- that was cheating but there was no clamour to have the game replayed

Its football & its played by humans, Humans make errors . Why do the irish want this replayed? France cant play as bad 3 times, I think they shouold just accept it & get on with things.

[The Pepsi Challenge]

FIFA issue statement on FAI request

FIFA has today, 20 November 2009, replied to the request made by the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) to replay the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ play-off match held on 18 November 2009 between France and the Republic of Ireland in Paris.

In the reply, FIFA states that the result of the match cannot be changed and the match cannot be replayed. As is clearly mentioned in the Laws of the Game, during matches, decisions are taken by the referee and these decisions are final.



http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/ne...nt+fai+request

[John Baikie]

Okay , how many of you complained when Joe Jordans hand ball won Scotland a penalty at Anfield in 1977 ??? It got us through to the world cup in Argentina.

How many of you laughed when the Diego maradona hand of god goal went in against the English? I laughed & danced about , Im not ashamed to say .

When Scotland played Italy a couple of years back, Barry Ferguson scored an offside goal & then the ref gave Italy the free kick that never was, from the resultant free kick the Italians scored- that was cheating but there was no clamour to have the game replayed

Its football & its played by humans, Humans make errors . Why do the irish want this replayed? France cant play as bad 3 times, I think they shouold just accept it & get on with things.

Good post.
Imagine a slightly different scenario to the one that happened.
Henry DOESN'T handle the ball but squares it across the box. The striker knocks the ball goalwards and an Irish defender sticks a hand out and blocks it. Ref doesn't see it. Would the entire world be calling the defender a cheat, and wanting the game replayed?? No.

It's not a good way to lose a big game, but injustices happen week in, week out. It is certainly a good argument for new technology being brought in, and I have wanted that for ages.

I for one am more concerned that Scotland won't be in the world cup, yet again, and find it quite disturbing how many Scots are more upset about this game than the mess our own game is in.

[The Pepsi Challenge]

Good post.
Imagine a slightly different scenario to the one that happened.
Henry DOESN'T handle the ball but squares it across the box. The striker knocks the ball goalwards and an Irish defender sticks a hand out and blocks it. Ref doesn't see it. Would the entire world be calling the defender a cheat, and wanting the game replayed?? No.

It's not a good way to lose a big game, but injustices happen week in, week out. It is certainly a good argument for new technology being brought in, and I have wanted that for ages.

I for one am more concerned that Scotland won't be in the world cup, yet again, and find it quite disturbing how many Scots are more upset about this game than the mess our own game is in.

Which upset Scots are you referring to?

[Amy-Winehouse]

Which upset Scots are you referring to?

Gee , let me think???

Anyone see Roy Keane`s take on event`s? To the point or what?? He said along the lines of the ball should have been cleared, why didnt the goalie stop the ball & it was poor defending. No way should it be replayed,.

In one of the qualifiers Ireland were awarded a penalty against Georgia when it clearly wasnt, did the FAI appeal to have that game replayed? No they didnt, Ireland had 10 qualifiers to get to the world cup they failed, get over it...

Keane doesnt mince his words does he.