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Calls for replay seem to be going nowhere
Comments(19)The France-Ireland match and the aftermath have been extremely emotional for all involved.
The Match
France humiliated themselves with a pathetic performance, arguably the worst of the Domenech era, which is saying something.
Ireland played very well, but blew multiple goal-scoring chances that would have booked their spot in the World Cup.
France’s captain Thierry Henry played an outrageous handball to set up the decisive goal to send France to the World Cup, denying Ireland a chance to take the penalty kicks that they had famously been practicing.
The Aftermath
The aftermath has been sickening. I read that some eighty percent of French citizens would support a replay. The French citizens with whom I’ve spoken support the idea. Henry himself has come out in support of it. We’re embarrassed and a little sick about the ugliness of advancing to the World Cup in those circumstances.
The Irish are devastated by the injustice of not getting their penalty shoot-out, and no one can blame them, except for a select group of anti-establishment Irishmen who oppose whinging as a rule (see Roy Keane or the Arseblogger).
There’s a widespread campaign to demonize Henry and castigate him as “a cheat.” That’s a term I find too reductive and simplistic, but Henry can stir up emotions like few others in world football.
Henry has been a player who has rarely had to resort to rule-breaking to be successful in football. As recently as 5 years ago, he was among the two or three best players in the world. He was an artist, and fair play was part of his art.
But when the stakes are high, and when things aren’t going his way, Henry has shown that he will exaggerate contact (see the Spain match in the 2006 World Cup) or play an outrageous handball. It looks especially bad coming from Henry because he has been such an icon for the sport; and as a proponent of fair play, it’s awkwardly hypocritical when he does resort to rule-breaking; it’s jarring.
Take the Ireland match in question: a couple handballs from Robbie Keane (admittedly both spotted) – no outcry; one from Henry (admittedly epic), and it felt like football itself was in jeopardy.
On the one hand, we acknowledge that players will do whatever they can to win a match, and in that light, Henry’s post-match comments sound about right: “I’m not the referee.”
That would be the end of the story in most cases, but given the circumstances (a disgraceful France performance up to that point, and the outrageous degree of the rules infraction by an icon of the game, that was somehow, shockingly not called), Henry’s later comments sound about right: “A replay would be the fairest solution.”
But the French Football Federation (FFF), the same people who kept Domenech on the job after the Euro 2008 debacle, and FIFA have rejected calls for a replay.
And today, something happened that has caused seemingly irreparable damage to the lobbying effort for a replay – club football.
PS: I don’t mean to come across as heartless, as I do feel for the Irish, but replays are not the answer. Every game has its share of bad calls, it’s human nature as the match officials cannot be everywhere at once, and football is a sport meant to be played in real time. If the match was replayed, then another call would bound to be called into question. So then what, do we do another replay?
Where does the line get drawn? Henry didn’t mean to cheat, his handball just happened instinctively. How is that any different than a defender getting away with a bad tackle? What will happen to football if suddenly all nations are demanding replays because of penalties unfairly given (or not given), of unjust expulsions, and of goals unfairly given or discredited?
These are questions that need to be answered before the idea of a replay can be taken seriously. Just because this is a match with high stakes doesn’t isn’t an excuse – all competitive matches are high stake, whether in club or international football.
At the end of the day, a replay wouldn’t accomplish anything except more controversy.
The thing is…what if the ref in the replay makes a mistake!?
Will they have a re-replay!?
And what if after that there’s another disputed call by the ref? ANOTHER re-re-replay?
Posted from 
United Kingdom
Yeah. Re-re-re….play. Miggy is right.
I did not see the whole match. I do see from the video replay that Henry touched the ball with his left hand twice in a second. He did admitted. He said, “replay” because he knew he would be punished!
I saw the video replay that the referee was 50 m away and probably block-viewed by 4 players. I am not sure whether the referee had consulted the lines men. I am not sure whether the lines men’s view were blocked. Why should the referee asked Henry? If you are a thief would you admit? Maybe, Henry’s conscience would had changed minutes after he was temped by evil to commit a saint. But seemed he didn’t. He only called for a replay when the issue had heated up.
The only one to blame is Henry and be punished.
jeff
you always remove my comments, why?
Posted from 
United States
Only the most hateful ones, when I catch them early enough.
Inara is 100% correct…Anybody who thinks Ireland deserves a replay is being irrational
Posted from United States
It would have to come at the request of the FFF, I’d think, under pressure from French citizens. For FIFA to mandate a replay would have been troubling, but the French, if they were upset enough at the way the match ended, could have theoretically decided that they didn’t want to advance to the World Cup under those circumstances.
Henry suggesting a replay opened up that possibility, I thought, but the return of club football has killed the debate.
Fortunately, judging by our comments on the main page, I think public opinion is trending back toward sympathy for (or at least understanding of) Henry. What he did wasn’t right, and I think we all feel for the Irish, but a replay is not the solution. Right after it happened, all emotion was with the Irish. A day later it was much more nuanced.
http://www.worldcupblog.org/world-cup-2010/how-long-until-we-forgive-thierry-henry.html
I think it also helped that somebody unearthed the video of the bizarre Irish penalty against Georgia. Because if Henry should have called referee attention to his handball, surely someone from Ireland should have called attention to the fact that this was an undeserved penalty?
I think it’s a technicality by now, but I think the FIFA said that a request coming from the FFF wouldn’t make it happen anyway.
OK, with this I think I’ve officially moved on.
Let’s get a defense.
Let’s get a strategy, a direction, a game.
We build a good team with the first piece: the goalkeeper. In my opinion, he is the one who took us to SA, by keeping the Irish close.
Posted from 
France
If you’re to the point yet where you can laugh about it, this game is hysterical.
this is absurd, what hateful ones?
Posted from United States
Question for you all, I keep hearing that Domenech should be fired. Can that even happen before 2010? I would love Laurent to be the 2010WC coach.
All I have to say is I lost all respect for Thierry Hendry as a player and as a man. He is a cheater, a man with no morals, a disgrace to the game of football. Did I make it plain enough? What he did in that game is criminal as far as I’m concern, the importence of this game for it to come down to someone cheating is a disgrace to the great game. FIFA should be bisbanded if they let this stand because it sends the message “it’s ok to cheat”. Young chilren that play and follow the game will think that all that matters is too win no matter how you win! The referee’s in this game and many other’s are terrible, if this is the best you can do then you need to put another referee on the pitch and 4 linesman on the pitch when it comes to world cup games and qualifiers. There is too mauch at stake for these countries for a game too be decided on such a blatant handball. If France does go through I hope they lose every game to a hand ball goal. Justice for cheaters.
Posted from United States
Well, I hate to bring this up, to follow up with Mark, but it’s not like France really owned up to Zidane’s act of thuggery. So many straw men were thrown up in his defense it watered down the offense. Always deflecting is the work of the guilty.
In the case of Henry, yes, it does get to his character. I don’t know where the nuance comes in (and Laurie, really, you do a superb job with the France posting) but it’s pretty black and white to me. His handling of the ball was intentional. He double handled it for crying out loud!
However, where I draw the line is the calls for him – and France – to be “banned” which is pure rubbish. France fans feel bad about it but they shouldn’t beat themselves offer it either. It’s not like Ireland got their breaks.
Last, I can’t believe what I’m reading about the skepticism of replay. It won’t solve anything? Are you kidding me? Are you guys following other sports at all? They used to say the same thing in hockey and football. Now? Fans thank the good Lord for it. It saved those sports in many ways. It’s worked fine in tennis and baseball and in all cases it hasn’t damaged the integrity or traditions of the game. It’s called evolving.
So, I say learn to LOVE REPLAY!
Posted from 
Canada
It’s not like they “didn’t” get their breaks. Sorry.
Posted from Canada
As an Ireland fan I’m going to try to come off as unbiased as possible. I have been following the world cup since I can remember and have done extensive research about the world cup since Uruguay’s first crown in ‘30. I think the problem that I personally have and most Ireland fans are having is this favoritism towards the powerhouses. Even if this was Bulgaria and Italy I would show some type of frustration because of how the golden teams are treated. (golden teams being Brazil, France, Italy, Germany, Argentina, and England with Spain and Portgual waiting in the shadows until they win it all). This is just icing on the cake for believers in a conspiracy. First Sepp puts into affect seeding for eufa playoffs, then the hand of Henry, and now the mystery behind how teams will be seeded in ‘10. I know its never right to compare US sports to international football but imagine if the NFL season was over and the commisioner was still in debate of who was going to get the bye weeks either the Patriots or the Colts? its ridiculous.
A few questions for people to think about:
When was the last time a world cup finals didn’t have Brazil, Italy, France, Argentina, or Germany playing against eachother?
1978 Netherlands over 30 years!
Since 1998 when I believe the seeding process has taken place name the only team out of the big 5 (France, Brazil, Germany, Italy, and Argentina) not to be seeding in group 1?
never! wonder if it will happen again this year . . .
For those who want to see the undeserved penalty by Ireland vs. Georgia:
Any Irish supporter complaining about Fair Play who don’t mention this is a hypocrite:
http://footballblips.dailyradar.com/story/ireland-georgia-ridiculous-penalty/tweets/?p=1
Posted from France
OK, I’ve calmed down somewhat over last week.
But I’m afraid we supporters of France are going to have to get used to a good deal of hostility being directed towards us, errr … the French NT–possibly for years to come.
As something of a novice to the game, I was outraged that one of my favourite players from my favourite international team should have done what he did.
But after reading & thinking much about it, I now see a much larger context: one in which (surprise!) cheating is an accepted part of the game. What’s more, a tacitly expected part of the game on the part of managers and players. I think that’s why so much of the European football establishment came out in support of Henry as a good guy–which by reports he probably is–and definitely not a cheat. But what is a “cheat” in the context of football?
The larger problem is human nature’s tendency to get away with what it can. Which is why we police ourselves. Football is merely analogous to society at large, but whereas society provides it police forces with ever evolving, up-to-date instruments to supervise an ever-evolving society, football has not done this for it’s police, the referees.
While I appreciate and enjoy the fact that football is played in real time, something must be done to help stop this by now intrinsic flaw in the game. Some form of video replay, however limited, seems like the obvious way to go–or at least experimented with at some level of the sport.
It’s too easy to blame the referees–I’m amazed they do as well as they do given all they must observe within a tense, pressurized context. They need help, some kind of reinforcement …
Posted from Canada
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I seem to be doing a lot of cross posting lately, but too many places to post and not enough words in the English language (or in French, for that matter).
So if Ireland deserve a replay, then so does France. Both teams were unjustly punished by referring errors, mistakes which could have changed the fate of qualification.
In the first leg, at Croke Park, Evra ought to have been given a penalty in the second half, and had France scored from that penalty, the outcome of the following match may have been entirely different, just as the outcome of the match in France might have been different had Henry’s goal been discredited and the game gone on to penalties.
Henry scored from a handball that the referee did not see, and Given got away with fouling a player in the penalty area. Both players broke the rules of the game, though in both cases, it wasn’t deliberate cheating (and sorry, I don’t buy that Henry set out to cheat – that requires premeditation, which is impossible in the quarter-second that Henry, who was moving at high speed across a crowded and slippery area, had in order to react).
I just don’t see why everyone is coming down on France for not owning up to their lack of fairplay. I don’t recall Given going to the referee after tripping Evra and admitting that France deserved a penalty. Nor do I remember hearing the FFF demanding a repeat of the game or the Irish FA offering one.
Yes, it’s unfortunate that Ireland had to go out this way, and Henry’s goal should have been disallowed. But this overreaction – that France are a nation of cheaters, that Henry lost all his class from one incident, and the demands that France ought to be be disqualified from the WC are over the top.
After all, Ireland should have been disqualified from the playoffs. Their undeserved penalty against Georgia is what even allowed them to play the qualifiers – where was Ireland’s class when they didn’t admit to the ref that they didn’t deserve that penalty? Or did the Irish players do the smart thing and take advantage of the referee’s mistake so that they could still have a chance at making it to the World Cup?
High standards are all well and good, but they need to be applied fairly and evenly across all nations and in all games. And if that’s the case, then Ireland has no more right to be at the World Cup than France.
Clearly, Georgia are the ones who truly got robbed.