Le Cheat, Le Hand of God, French Nickers, Hand Gaul – that’s the damning verdict by some of the British newspapers on Thierry Henry’s handball that literally handed France a place at the World Cup finals and broke Irish hearts in Paris.
To say it was controversial is an understatement. The stakes couldn’t have been higher with Ireland leading 1-0 and taking the game into extra time at the Stade de France. With penalties looming, Henry prevented the ball going out with his hand before sliding it across for William Gallas to score the crucial goal and take the French through.
Calls for video technology, a replay, a ban for Henry, and even for Ireland to replace France in the World Cup have all been made, but nothing will come of them as the French begin to make their plans for next Summer.
How Henry’s own conscience will handle it is another matter, but the look on Barcelona striker’s face as he sat on the floor next to Richard Dunne after the game told it’s own story. His comments won’t help to save his tarnished reputation either.
“I will be honest it was a handball but I’m not the referee,” said Henry. “I told (Richard) Dunne and he said the same to me, ‘you’re not the ref’. That’s why the players did not come to me, that’s why they went to the referee. You can clearly see the opportunity. Sebastien Squillaci went to jump for the ball with two Irish players and I’m behind him. The next thing I know the ball hit my hand, my arm even. It was right in front of me, I played it. The ref allowed it and that’s a question you should ask him.”
The Irish players have given their opinions, some more diplomatic than others. Some are probably just as mad at themselves for not putting away their chances over the course of the two legs.
But what hurts more is the sense of injustice when cheats once again seem to prosper. Conspiracy theorists have accused the likes of French legend Michel Platini (head of UEFA) and FIFA supremo Sepp Blatter of doing everything they can to get the so-called bigger nations through to South Africa, and things like this only poke the fire.
Henry, a World Cup winner in 1998, has been a great player for clubs like Monaco and Arsenal over the last decade and has been a model professional wherever he has been. He ruined all that with a moment of madness on Wednesday, not that he will care.
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What a disgraceful way for France to reach the WC! Shame on them and on Henry!
Surely this game ahs to be replayed, there is too much at stake for it just to be brushed off.
FAX number for FIFA! +41-43-222 7878 …fifa.com.Available from “Republic of Ireland Football site on here!
But I would like to point out that anyone that can read French will see that respect to the French people for their reaction of disgust to Henry’s actions, so for the people that France I hope that they go on to do well in the World Cup! I had a look at this link below that has some good football related Facebook Statuses for the World Cup in its Facebook Status Generator:
http://www.theisbook.com/status-generator/
henry is a cheat, france should not go through it is a JOKE
Les francais sont CHEATS
Henry played to the whistle. Fair play to him.
FIFA, on the other hand, is a complete sham. No question it created what it wanted for its field of 32, save for maybe Russia getting in. But to seed the teams for these European playoffs was a complete mockery of the system to begin with. This just adds to it. FIFA is a complete joke. If they take no action it will prove that they put business ahead of the integrity of the game.
shocking… Henry will feel sick as a dog over this and so he should. How refreshing and admirable would it have been if he had immediately admitted to the ref and prevented the goal from regsiering!
I hope the game is replayed. It is simply outrageous that the Irish should miss out due to scum bag cheats.
Henry is not professional and not honest… What a shame, will be remembered as “The Soccer Cheater”
Ana FIFA… won’t do anything… I hope this incident don’t let Mr. Blatter sleeps for a very long long time!!!
Henry doit mourir!!!
omg so annoyed at the moment cant believe ireland are out…was just lookin at thiery henrys twitter page where i found two interesting things….1 he says “im not the referee… but if i hurt some one im sorry ” ….2.one of the four people he follows is diego maradona.(ironic)…well anyway went onto his page where he says “@Thierry_Henry I know how it feels! see you in south africa”….i think they should learn some sportsmanship…especially maradona sayin that his page is http://twitter.com/Diego_Maradona
…it feels so much better now that i have given out,…but it doesnt change that ireland are out and the whole of the country is dissapointed especially when the lads played so well…..
Go to http://cheatingscum.net/ and register your anger officially! Thierry Henry is a cheat and we want to tell the world. Go to http://cheatingscum.net/ now!
Zindane will be remembered as the headbutter, Henry the cheat … two great French footballers who have tarnished their outstanding careers by moments of madness.
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Henry should have told the ref and asked for disallow of the goal. It’s obvious to see him touched the ball deliberately. What a disgrace…
To hear so many footballers past and present say that Henry is not to blame, that any player would do it is disgraceful. Dishonesty is dishonesty. If Henry thinks the referree needs to see cheating for it to be cheating tells me a lot about the man. Top players make dream salaries for doing what the rest of us do for nothing on Sundays but fun. They get their money from fans ticket, shirts, cable tv etc. They need to cop on and realise that the least they owe us is an honest effort.
All of you who blame Thierry Henry, where were you on 11-2-2009 when Ireland won Georgia thanks to an absurd penalty? Should that match be replayed too? Who complained then? Certainly not any of those who do now…
The video of that unexisting penalty is available on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jf9fx4ipF4Q&feature=player_embedded
As an Irishman I shall be cheering France to glory in the world cup finals in South Africa. I hope they beat England in the quarter final, Argentina in the semi final and then just to top it all off Brazil in the final. My ultimate dream would be for Tierry Henry to score the winning goal in the final. What a great victory that would be for the beautiful game. The idiots who run FIFA will have to live for four long years with a country as world champions who got there by cheating. And the scorer of the winning goal none other than the greatest cheat of all. Blatter would be choking, they would never live it down and their hypocritical and farcical fair play campaign would blow up in their stupid ugly faces. Blatter could aways revive the idea of lady footballers with shorter shorts, great one that.
Long live the Republic.