Yeah. I guess it's time to talk about it.
I haven’t had a conversation with the lads today about the above photograph/screenshot. Adam and I sort of went back and forth a bit on tumblr last night about it. I was apoplectic, as I usually am when something like this occurs, and Adam was of a mind that in a similar situation, he probably would have done the same thing. I thought that a good night’s sleep would allow me some time and perspective, but today brings more acrimony and more anger. I need to exorcise my thoughts on this matter, so follow me below as I attempt to sort it all out.
The facts as I know them to be:
Ireland were leading the match when the handball occurred, and were unable to score during the rest of the match to get through. To me, it’s very specious to suggest that Ireland were playing for penalties. It’s also highly speculative to suggest that one side or the other would be the favourite in a penalties situation. I’ve seen way too many matches go to penalties and not go the way I thought they might. In that situation, Shay Given had just as much chance to be a hero as the French keeper did. The bottom line is that Ireland were not in a winning position, just a position to get to penalties.
France’s goal was a DIRECT RESULT of cheating and two missed official’s calls, and they advanced to the World Cup off of a dishonest goal. Try to convince me otherwise. Henry deliberately handled, and Gallas was offside.
If Thierry Henry did in fact tell the official that he had handled and was rebuffed, the referee should face the fullest extent of punishment possible. According to Henry, he told the match official that he had handled and was told “You are not the ref, I am the ref.” At the very least, when the player tells you directly that he has committed an offense against the rules that led to a goal, you need to stop play and gather the linesman to ask what they saw. Again, the action is moving incredibly fast and it’s sometimes difficult to gather what’s all happened until it’s processed in one’s mind. Still, though, I find it amazing that if Henry is telling the truth, the match official did nothing.
Henry celebrated the goal and did a lap of honour after the match. I was shocked at the celebration, but even more shocked that if he says he KNEW he had committed handball, he didn’t just exit the pitch gracefully after the match was over. If you want to celebrate with your team-mates and your manager, do it in the locker room. Don’t exploit the hard feelings of the opponents who should not have to watch a shameful celebration like that. Have some class.
Replay would have disallowed this goal. Again, try to convince me otherwise. The feed I was seeing, the one from China (I think), had the replay as Henry and Gallas and their team-mates were gathering to celebrate. Virtually instantaneous replay revealed that it was clear. At that point, a belt buzzer should be activated on the 4th official’s belt, he should go to a phone connected to a replay booth, they look at it and make a decision and call it down to the 4th official. I think that would have solved the problem right there.
My other thoughts in oddsmaker form:
Platini and Blatter will try to ride out the storm until everyone calms down: 3 to 1. Sepp Blatter didn’t show up on the dais when Italy beat France in 2006. Platini is French to the core. I doubt you’ll hear much from either one over the next few days. FIFA and UEFA “spokespeople” will be quoted, never these two.
A replay will happen: 1000 to 1. There’s virtually no chance this happens. I think everyone will rant and rave and cry and moan but they (FIFA) will never allow this to happen. The draw is two weeks away. The chances of them putting together a rematch, especially with Champions League matches mid-week, club matches both weekends and Cup matches in various countries, are slim.
Some sort of apology will be forthcoming from UEFA’s official’s office: 5 to 1. I would guess that they will make some sort of statement about the horrendous error. If the nation’s FA’s are any indication, there should be some type of statement coming. Not that it will placate the Irish.
The outcry over this will continue through this upcoming weekend and into next week: 3 to 2. I have no doubt about this. There is not a monstrous weekend of matches, and sorry, Liverpool/City doesn’t qualify. Rubin Kazan/Zenit isn’t bad, Munich/Leverkeusen and the MLS Championship match are happening, but there isn’t enough there to distract the world’s football press.
I wish I knew what else to say about this. It’s disappointing and yes, it bothers me. I have no Arsenal agenda here, I have no Irish or French agenda here. I wish it had not happened and the match would have played out fairly. It did not and here we are. Share thoughts in comments, if you like.
FIFA will never allow this match to be replayed. End of story.
However, if Ireland had won in a similar fashion I’d already be looking to see when the rematch was going to be televised.
FIFA will just ride it out until the excitement of the draw pushes the story out of people’s minds.
It will never happen, but here’s a novel idea: how about Ireland get’s a free pass to Brazil 2014?
Re: Free pass. Nice idea, and let’s up the ante (since we’re discussing pipe dreams that will never happen): Regardless of their respective records leading into 2014, Ireland gets a free pass, and France is denied entry.
\grumble grumble…insert anti-French epithet of choice here
It’s not cheating. Something that happens in the course of the game that’s illegal isn’t necessarily cheating. Cheating is taking amphetamines before the game or wearing illegal cleats. Should it have been a hand ball? Yes. But this kind of stuff happens and I can’t understand the outrage, this ain’t the first bad call in history.
You can’t understand the outrage? Really?
First off, it’s 30 MILLION EUROS just gone from the Irish FA’s coffers. That’s what World Cup teams make just for showing up. Secondly, there’s a HUGE amount of prestige involved with making the World Cup finals, especially what would have been involved with knocking off the 2002 champs and 2006 runners-up. Third, for a LOT of the Irish players, this was their best EVER shot at making the World Cup. A chance that comes around once every four years.
Don’t minimize the outrage. Please don’t, it makes you look foolish.
He’s just a joker looking to get hits for his website.
Oh, and for the record, football players (the kind that uses a prolate spheriod) wear “cleats.”
You said it yourself: “Ireland were not in a winning position, just a position to get to penalties”. The goal wasn’t the only reason Ireland got knocked out. It just denied them the chance to win it in the penalty shootouts. Otherwise, Ireland had to score the second goal. And if they did they would be in the World Cup cheating or no cheating.
“Replay would have disallowed this goal.”
100% agreed. I think this is the type of thing that will make replay get considered. You only have to do it for controversial goals, it’d take maybe a minute of time and it’d probably only happen once every 3-4 matches or so.
The bottom line is that the officials missed the call. I saw one replay where the line judge had what should have been a clear cut line of sight and seen that the ball hit Henry’s hand.
Like I had said yesterday, if I’m in the same position as Henry with a place in the World Cup on the line and I know I’m not going to be able to wrangle that ball down to get a clear shot or pass then I’m palming the ball and trying to get something out of it. 9 times out of 10 that’s probably caught and the goal disallowed.