Why Ireland’s game against France cannot and should not be replayed.

20th November 2009

 

Why Ireland’s game against France cannot and should not be replayed.

Thierry Henry’s instinctive (in my view) and probably ill-advised handball leading to the goal that ensured France and not the Republic of Ireland would be at the World Cup next year has caused such outrage and faux-offence by some of the game’s more unpalatable pundits (Tony Cascarino, I’m looking at you. You effectively made a career out of cheating at International level, so I’d recommend a sustained period of radio silence until this blows over, if I were you) that I felt compelled to give my opinion on the whole debacle.

Yes, Thierry Henry shouldn’t have handled the ball leading up to the goal, and yes he bent the rules to breaking point and chanced his arm against the referee and his assistants. I don’t wish to defend that action, I merely wish to highlight that he isn’t the only one who seeks to gain an advantage in this way. Henry Winter in today’s Telegraph is calling for Sepp Blatter to ban Thierry Henry from the tournament. Let me say that again: Henry Winter is calling for Sepp Blatter to BAN HENRY FROM THE WORLD CUP. Where will it all end, Mr Winter? Do we ban Didier Drogba and Cristiano Ronaldo from the World Cup for diving/cheating? Do we then ban any player that has dared to attempt something outside of the rules? This is a nonsense, and fundamentally flawed logic.

It shouldn’t make an iota of difference how important the game is in the grand scheme of a tournament; the rules should be applied correctly, to the best of the referee’s ability no matter how important/meaningless the game is. You simply cannot have a replay because there was a decision missed on the grounds that it was a ‘really important game’. This will just serve to put more pressure on officials on the big occasions, and lead to more inept refereeing. The rules of the game are the rules of the game. You cannot add a subsection to FIFA’s rulebook stating ‘Should the game be a defining match in the deciding of which nations qualify for a major tournament, then all games shall be replayed until the referee’s performance is deemed worthy of the occasion.’ Come on.

As for Thierry Henry, just because it was a high profile bit of skulduggery doesn’t mean he deserves to be vilified any more than any other player who bends the rules, which is probably just about every single player in history, in one form or another. Again, I’ll stop short of defending him, I just feel he should be judged on the same level as every other player. If you see cheating, whether it be diving or deliberate handball, as an endemic problem within the game of football, then you simply cannot lay the blame at the door of one player, just because he happens to be the latest person guilty of it. It is the huge risk/reward culture that football itself has cultivated which leads to this win-at-all-costs mentality. Would Raymond Domenech be out of a job had France not qualified? Probably. So is he absolutely delighted that France are through? Judging by his press conference after the game, almost certainly. Obviously he would have preferred to win without a handball leading up to a goal, but given the choice between Gallas’ goal and not qualifying, I think we all know what he’d choose.

Ireland have every right to feel hard done by, but not at the hands of Thierry Henry. At the hands of the referee who didn’t make a correct decision, and at the hands of Robbie Keane and Damien Duff’s profligacy, without which they would have been comfortably two or three up, and there would have been no problem. Also, at the hands of FIFA’s decision to seed the playoffs, something which is a far greater problem and I fear will be lost amongst this furore. FIFA blatantly stacking the dice in favour of the ‘big’ nations is something that is far more important to address, let us not lose sight of that.

It is also worth mentioning that Ireland would not have automatically qualified had that goal been rightfully disallowed. Had the score remained the same, the tie would have gone to penalty kicks, which Ireland were nowhere near guaranteed of winning. And, lest we forget, France were on the receiving end of some pretty terrible decisions throughout the qualification group, which effectively forced them into a playoff with Ireland in the first place. Football’s funny like that.

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Iain Gardiner

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2009-11-20 12:31:58

Very true. If you start replaying games because of human error where does it end? Whether people agree or not the referee´s decision is final if you start analysing every game for any decision that goes against you World Cups will start being decided by a committee rather than on the pitch.

I feel sorry for Trapattoni. Yet again the international game has dealt him a cruel blow.

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Dan Shoesmith

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2009-11-20 12:37:01

Well written article Luke, good points well made.

I think it´s well worth pointing out some of the other glaringly obvious handballs missed over the years that didn´t get pulled up. Aside from God´s quite blatant handball as he lined up in attack for Argentina in ´86, how about Joe Jordan punching the ball into the net in the Seventies, or Kim Vilfort´s blatant (if perhaps not entirely deliberate) controlling handball in the buildup to his second goal against Ze Germans in the final of Euro ´92? Cheating to win is nothing new, lest we forget.

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Josh Jeffries

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2009-11-20 13:15:44

I don´t blame Henry. In the dying minutes of the most important game of France´s campaign, can we really expect him to stop and fess up to the ref and in doing so completely jeopardize an otherwise ´guaranteed win´!? No, he did what any other player/humanbeing would have done in his position and took the goal and therefore - took the win that booked his country a place in arguably the biggest sporting event in the world!

Surely the real question is, why is there not some kind of video replay system in place to prevent such absurdities? How many arguments, appeals, drawn-out investigations etc. would such a system stop...?

Hundreds a season is my guess...

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Francis omalley

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2009-11-20 13:43:30

Have to say I agree with the article although I was personally gutted to lose I knew there would be no chance of a replay.for the linesman to miss the handball though was shocking as he was directly facing Henry and the match officials must take full blame.I also agree that the last minute decision to seed the qualifiers should be a bigger talking point as it seems to be a case of FIFA trying to do everything they can to get the most marketable teams and players to the world cup which is against what the world cup should stand for.

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Slim

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2009-11-20 14:29:34

Good points Luke, i´ve said before its very hard on Ireland but you cannot replay the game without opening a huge can of worms, how many games would end up being replayed in the four English leagues every week?

A season would end up taking 5 years to complete.

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Luke

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2009-11-20 18:03:32

Yep good points Luke, but to be honest i think the most disappointing thing wasn´t that Henry used his hand to control the ball (cos i think 9/10 strikers would of done that if they could) but the way he reacted after it, running off celebrating like he´d just won the whole tournament! He should of kept his head down and got on with that game.

Also i don´t think ireland should really blame him OR the ref, more fifa for their stubbornness on not bringing in video technology for these kinds of decisions, we all saw on telly instantly what had happened, if the ref had that reply in front of him he could of given the right decision and none of this would of happened.

It´s all just a big shame!

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CC

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2009-11-20 20:11:32

Nobody in Ireland expects a replay except for a few high profile suits in the FAI, a clown of a politician and the media who are just bored. We were robbed, but we should have finished them when we had the chance. C´est la vie.

The heartbreaking thing is that the likes of Robbie Keane and particularly Damien Duff are no longer capable of finishing these chances, and the whole team gave perhaps their best performances in an Irish shirt for about 5 years. We simply didn´t have the quality or the good fortune to score a second goal - France did for both their goals over the two legs.

The real robbery was that we didn´t win the tie through the 180 minutes, and that was purely for footballing reasons.

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bumsandwillys

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2009-11-20 21:09:13

Agree with this apart from diving is gamesmanship and what Henry did is cheating!

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scotj94

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2009-11-20 22:53:08

However one thing being missed out here no offence Luke is that the referee´s experience is again being questioned which is like deja vu of chelsea´s defeat to Barcalona in the champions league semi final.
The referee in question was Martin Hansson from Swedan and even his own nations press have critisised him for allowing the goal. However this once again goes back to an earlier podcast about saying to the others "sorry your not premier league" which in my opinion is shameful of the beautiful game.

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chappers

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2009-11-21 01:32:11

The blame has to squared at the referee and the assistant who should have seen a clear handball not henry, who only reacted in a manner any footballer across the world would have done. just because henry´s handball wasn´t seen doesn´t make him any more of a cheat than any other player who attempts the same and is caught. the idea of replays are ridiculous as the pressident set could completly alter football as we know it.

I believe the greatest area of complaint is the corrupt nature of fifa´s decision to seed the play-off´s. I must state that I believe that seeded play-off´s is correct due to the highly seeded nature of the whole world cup and qualifying process. However the later change of decision based upon the teams involved in the draw is simply unacceptable and serves as a bitter reminder of the corrupt idiots who unfortunatly hold the power in our game.

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Bring back Shack

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2009-11-21 04:22:31

"I felt compelled to give my opinion on the whole debacle." Very unlike you Luke.

In all seriousness a good article squire. I am surprised to read Henry Winter´s reaction to it, always thought he was better than that sort of knee-jerky shit.

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Rory Foley

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2009-11-24 22:30:07

I´v slowly come around to your way of thinking luke, alot of people here in Ireland that I have spoken to since the match, have a general opinion that we won´t get a replay but maybe this high-profile cheat / refereeing error will be the reason that a video referee may finally be introduced into the game

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