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‘Hand of frog’ goal now an international incident
French and Irish leaders joust over call for a replay after Thierry Henry’s blatant cheat
Here's a diplomatic incident that could keep the newly appointed EU president and his high representative busy for weeks: the row between France and Ireland over the handball by Thierry Henry on Wednesday night that booted Ireland out of the World Cup finals.
The controversy has quickly moved from team to international level, with the Irish Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, demanding that the match should be replayed and telling his opposite number, French prime minister Francois Fillon, to take it up with President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Fillon replied by saying neither government should interfere in the decisions of Fifa, the sport's governing body. And Fifa duly responded to Ireland's request today with this statement: "The result will not be changed and cannot be replayed".
Sarkozy, who attended the match at the Stade de France, admitted that it had been a "painful" game but left it at that.
What makes the incident unusual is that nobody is denying that Henry cheated - not even the former Arsenal striker himself - when he used his left hand to pull the ball back to William Gallas, who duly scored from point-blank range. The goal equalised the score at 1-1, enough to see France through on aggregate.
As many commentators have remarked, Henry's action looked more like a rugby move than soccer. So blatant was it that even the the French public have denounced Henry for cheating, while in Dublin - where one paper headlined its report 'The hand of frog' - the post-match atmosphere is dreadful. Some are even saying the economy will suffer as a result.
Before the Taoiseach intervened, his justice minister, Dermot Ahern, had already decreed: "If that result remains, it reinforces the view that if you cheat you will win.
"Millions of people worldwide saw it was a blatant double handball, not to mention a double offside. We should put the powers that be in the cosy world of FIFA on the spot and demand a replay."
Joe McHugh, a Fine Gael member of the Irish parliament, said the French should volunteer to replay the match rather than waiting for a Fifa decision. "Throughout the country there is an air of bitterness," he said. "We were beaten unfairly and there is general disgust in France too."
One of the few men in either country to take the goal philosophically was Ireland's team manager, the Italian Giovanni Trapattoni. "I know it's impossible to repeat the game," he said.
Trapattoni called instead on Fifa and Uefa, the European governing body, to consider video replays to help refereees in future. As Neil Clark argued on The First Post yesterday, they work for rugby and they could work for soccer too. ·
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I do agree with Deloki. There is something wrong with football in general. I seriously wonder why such a dirty sport has begun so popular. Giving the youth some cheaters and silly multimillionaires as models illustrates a very serious lack of responsibility...
just before Henry handled the ball Shay Given brought down Anelka in the penalty area and a penalty was not awarded it was a clear penalty replays showed Given clipping Anelka's foot so maybe its just fate that the french had to get a goal before kicks from the penalty spot
The expose today of massive fraud and corruption in European football confirms the sickness that has consumed Europe.
The Irish were very aware of the consequences of the Lisbon 2 referendum but fear of the economic consequences prevailed and they voted "yes". I did not notice, by the way of any protests in the UK when Comrade Brown denied the people a similar referendum or for that matter in any other EU country. The masses in Europe have sleep-walked into a police state controlled by the elite.
Video replay will never be sanctioned by FIFA or UEFA since it would expose the cheats in the game. The match fixers & referees who are obviously instructed by those in the hierarchy to influence the outcome of games, not to mention the actors who flake out without even a hint of contact. We see repays of this stuff all week long, yet the powers that be don't do anything about it, why? because the best teams would always win and there's not a lot of money in that.
So the Irish want a replay OK but on the understanding that we get a replay against Argentina for the hand of god incident.
B***** sorry slip of the keyboard, silly little leprecourns.
Now perhaps everybody will start pushing for video replay.
Despite having already voted NO to the Lisbon Treaty, but nevertheless having another hugely skewed vote forced on them, enslaving them further to the un-democratic will of the EUSSR, Irish people are more concerned about a game of football. It's so absurd, it's worth reiterating. They get fouled out of a soccer tournament and they're practically at war, yet their sovereign independence as a nation is torn away from them and they can be distracted by the aforementioned soccer game to the point of beng oblivious to their own enslavement. At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist, was it rigged this way? The Romans controlled people with sports, albeit of a more brutal nature, the result was the same. Distraction of the masses. Perhaps the question should not be, should the game be replayed but do the Irish deserve to have any right left to be considered Irish? And yes, I would apply the same question to the rest of us.
Cheating is endemic in soccer as well as in cricket and rugby and is symtomatic of the whole culture of corruption and greed throughout the western world. The bankers and politicians have pulled off the biggest "handball" of all, they got their hands into the taxpayers pockets.
Amazing, absolutely amazing.
Defenders grab shirts, trip forwards, kick them, whilst "Going for the ball!" They also commit professional fouls in various parts of the pitch, dispute referee's decisions and even deliberately injure follow players. When a forward does something as "innocent" as handle the ball, he invents a new game, rugby, where none of the above are allowed, only handling the ball.
If you are going to clean up football, stop bleating, and all of the afore mentioned foul plays, accept the referees decisions, and get over it.
Vive la France.