FIFA Disciplinary Committee Verdict on Henry: Not Guilty

The whole thing was a farce. They could have had the office clerk clear up the whole matter. They didn’t need to publicize this farcical trial and hold the trial, only to find out there was no grounds for a trial.

Football is a great game. The best. But the governing bodies, like FIFA, the FFF, and the English FA are disgustingly incompetent. They act as if they’re intentionally trying to look like idiots.

I agree about the farce, Jeff. I guess they needed to have something official that would put this thing to an end. I don’t think it will make any difference.

“because handling the ball cannot be regarded as a serious infringement”

pretty hilarious.

they can’t punish him because the ref didn’t see it.

its like demanding a driver to be given a speeding ticket, because he was going beyond the speed limit. while tru the police has to catch and he has to decied whether he deserves a ticket

I firmly believe that the reason this particular incident has generated so much fake moral outrage, so much sanctimonious bullsh!t, so much INSANE HYSTERIA is solely because Henry is French and it’s the horrible, evil FRANCE team who are the mass murdering evildoers — what’s worse, the “victims” were the saintly innocent poor poor Irish, a home nation and thus automatically supported by the xenophobic English press (the most watched football media in the English-speaking world) against those evil frogs.

If France were not involved, I do not believe for one moment the hysteria and neurotic fulminating would be as intense.

To punish Henry would then set a precedent: from now on, all handballs (and any other incidents) in all qualifying games for any tournament would be subject to punishment. FIFA would then face national team authorities clamoring for punishments after every single qualifying round.

If FIFA wanted to formally CHANGE THE RULES and use the Henry incident to establish a precedent that would be followed from NOW ON consistently, then a punishment would be a good idea. It’s the same point with the Eduardo dive.

If you’re just going to punish one isolated incident among a ZILLION other incidents and then leave it at that, not allow that punishment to establish a precedent to be followed from thereafter (thus allowing future incidents to go unpunished)…then no punishment should be handed out because it would then obviously be a case of hypocrisy.

Punish Henry by all means…as long as all such incidents are punished from hereafter, whether or not the mass murderer in question is French.

Right on Sandra – as usual

You put it well Sandrahn.

Parfait, I tried to express the same in a precedent post but you did it way better than me.But folks let’s be careful, because the next thing they’ll say is that we’re paranoid.

nice comment/book you wrote i agree with all you wrote especially with the Caps Locks sandrahn

“Jeff – The whole thing was a farce. They could have had the office clerk clear up the whole matter. They didn’t need to publicize this farcical trial and hold the trial, only to find out there was no grounds for a trial”…

i’m not in complete agreement. the “insane hysteria” which the press (and not only the anglo-saxon press) has fomented required that an unequivocal and official statement be made. that statement best takes the form of a hearing and a decision.

the conclusion was foregone. but the decision, as a non-precedent for giving the kangaroo courts a toehold in the way the game is run, was very important.

Point taken, Guignol, and the hysteria has died down considerably since then.

unrelated: but do you guys know if France will schedule/announce more friendlies than they already have?

Call me insane, but I wouldn’t mind watching Ireland at France again, purely to look at some specific game phases, specially in midfield. I think that, without the passion, it could give at least a good indication as to what to avoid doing, etc.
Does anybody know where I can find a link for that game or at least, large excerpts of it? (not the usual 8 seconds handball clips)

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I don’t know where to find France-Ireland video, but I would like to watch them play a friendly.

Jeff: I would and wouldn’t like to see them play a friendly. I think we need to forget the existence of Ireland until after the world cup. Unless, of course, we bashed their faces in with a 3 – 0 win or so. I really would not like to play them again. I could see a lot of people storming the field.

By the way if you haven’t heard of these guys they make great parodies of the French NT and Domenech. http://www.youtube.com/3615polyprod

I have to disagree that the outrage in the English-speaking media was driven by an anti-French bias. Before the hand ball, Henry was one of the most admired and popular players to have played in England, and not only among Arsenal fans. Other Frenchmen who played or play in the Premier League–like Vieira, Evra, Cantona, etc.–have similar standing in England. The reason the media fixated on the hand ball is that 1) it was an important match, 2) Ireland was playing, and 3) UEFA seemed to fix the rules in an unfair, ad hoc way so that France would not play Portugal in the play-offs, so Ireland felt shafted by drawing France in the first place. I wouldn’t say the English media is particularly anti-French–they hate everyone who isn’t England, Scotland or Ireland. If it had been Holland vs. Ireland, and a Van Persie handball had swept Ireland from the world cup, I think we’d be hearing that orange is the color of shame and deceit.

Has anyone caught this? I saw a chyron text going by on French TV that Laurent Blanc *would have* agreed to take the helm of the NT after the World Cup. I just got back from work so I’ll check if there’s any truth to this!

Laurent himself puts an end to the rumor:
http://www.lequipe.fr/Football/breves2010/20100204_132654_blanc-je-demens-tout.html

http://www.goal.com/en/news/90/france/2010/02/04/1775581/agreement-in-principle-for-bordeauxs-laurent-blanc-to-become

here is an article in English as well….yes. time to get ready to win euro 2012 and wc 2014!

Our Group for 2012 qualifying: France, Romania, Bosnia, Belarus, Albania and Luxembourg.
http://www.goal.com/en/news/2898/euro-2012/2010/02/07/1780000/euro-2012-comment-bosnia-the-greatest-hurdle-in-frances

Thats a difficult group if you look at what others got. Romania and B&H are dangerous.

Hmm, my comment isn’t appearing…

Let’s be honest here. Henry is as guilty as can be as evidenced by 9 different camera angles. As a France supporter I an less than (much much less than) happy at the manner we qualified.

I am ashamed of Henry behaviour after the game consoling the Irish players.

I hope we won the WC but I also hope thierry is a no show. It seems the polls in France ate in agreement with me

Allez Les Blues

Does this have any truth to it?: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=740915&cc=5901

It is all about Karma. Henry is going to get it sooner or later. I don’t like him anymore after that stupid act.