What can we think about this controversery?First of all, facts:
Did Thierry Henry voluntarily play with his hand? Who can put a blame on him? We all voluntarily play with our hand(s), sometimes... :-) Stop kidding, when you watch the images you can easily see that it is a deliberate hand from Henry. But as he said it, the referee didn't whistle it so he continued to play and Gallas scored on his pass. France won its flight to the first African World Cup thanks to this goal.
Today, I've actually noticed two controverseries, reading the Irish and British news, the French news and the comments from French and Irish supporters. People say Thierry Henry should have said to the referee to not valid the goal. And because he didn't and, if you add that the handball was deliberate, people makes him a big cheater and raid against him with an excessive violence I think. When I say people I mean, Irish supporters of course (we can easily understand they speak because of their deception), Irish and British journalists (as violent, and from journalists, it's more difficult to understand why such an uncontrolled vehemence) but also French people! French people who love spitting out on a team they currently hate because they struggle but who will be very happy to support them if they do well in South Africa (exactly what happened in 1998 and 2006). French people who also like proving themselves they have a clear conscience to be able to judge Thierry Henry as unfair and even crooked player! But I ask this question: who would have been fair-play enough in the place of Henry, to say deliberately to the referee that the goal is not valid? When you imagine the stress of the match, the difficulty the team had to qualify, the sport and economical stakes! I would love to know the reaction of those who say Henry is pathetic if he would act as that great fair-play hero and then France would have lost qualification! No blame to Henry. The responsibility is the referee's one. And the real debate is: does he need any video help?
The second controversery I have noticed is again and again, everytime, the conspiracy theory! The one which says that obviously the FIFA only wanted the qualification of France and not Ireland. Really? So, tell me, why did they not "make up" the game or corrupt the referee in the previous qualifying step? It would have been much more discreet to do it in a "Romania-France" match than in this match! So please, this kind of theory people love to believe in when they are not happy with the commonly agreed truth piss me off!
4 comments:
I refuse to demonise Henry for not owning up to his clearly deliberate hand ball… Although I do think the culture in football to cheat and hope to get away with it is wrong. You can say what you like about the fact that many footballers commit professional fouls or use the "infamous hand of god" from time to time but this is something that always annoyed me about the sport. Unfair play is a blatant problem in football that has to be addressed not only through the use of video technology but also promoting a culture among athletes that cheating is wrong and has no place in the sport. Success is not everything both in life and in sport, and how we achieve our “goals” is as important as the end result.
I remember a football match from years ago when Robbie Fowler, one of the all time Liverpool greats lost his footing in the penalty area and fell to the ground. The ref immediately whistled for a penalty. What followed was quite amazing. Robbie proceeded argue with the referee saying that he wasn’t fouled. I was bemused by his reaction as his team would clearly benefit from the goal. But Robbie wanted to win clean. That is very admirable especially considering the money involved in competitive sport.
I have to add that the penalty was given anyway and Robbie scored from the spot so the story falls rather short of a happy ending.
Nonetheless, Robbie showed something that has for quite some time been lacking in football. I am speaking about honor. A quality that has depreciated even further in value in the modern day, money driven world of sport.
Henry is a great player. I am and always will be a fan, but the deliberate handball which led to France going to the world cup does take the gloss of his once shiny image. So he joins the great pantheon of great athletes, which includes the wondrous Maradonna, who have been exposed by a momentary lapse of their sense of morality.
France is going to the World Cup and I wish them the best of luck. It’s a pity Ireland fell victim to suspicious refereeing and unfair play but if we can’t rely on the honesty of players and the professionalism of referees it's about time we introduced video technology or a call system similar to the one that exists in tennis. Problem solved.
However, in a better, fairer, more honorable world we wouldn’t need all of this. Learn a lesson from Mr Robbie Fowler
Ed
Wooh Ed,
You built here a very interesting debate with this interesting article. Thanks for that. That's the purpose of a blog in my point of view.
I must admit that of course, cheating and being unfair is not something to encourage in both sport and life. But I'm not sure my point of view about the Thierry Henry controversery was a kind of encouragement of cheating. I just said that reactions were disproportionated and not focused on the right debate: do referees need video help?
Because we don't live in a good, fair and honorable world. Because we are human-being. We can just tend to improve but so many stakes act on us.
I like your exemple of MISTER Robbie Fowler, he is this king of guy who help humanity to improve in this sense. I also read another example from a French journalist about Wenger. He won in 1999 the UEFA award for fairplay as he asked to replay a FA Cup won by Arsenal against Sheffield. Because the Sheffield goalkeeper put the ball in touch to permit one of his teamate to be treated. And Kanu, instead of giving the ball back to Sheffield, played and passed to Overmars who scored! We know then that Wenger and Henry built an important page of the Arsenal history together... And Wenger was commenting the match for the French TV on live last week...
One last question Ed: is it not possible that Henry's gesture can be a reflex, because everything goes so fast at that moment, and so it's not deliberate?
Just to clarify. I'm not antagonising Henry. He is a fantastic player and a great professional. Nobody can deny that. I'm old enough to have seen his game develop since he played in Monaco back in the 1990's in a formidable attacking trio with Viktor Ikpeba (a Nigerian legend) and David Trezeguet.
I'm a fan but there is no denying that that Henry's handball was deliberate. There is no question about that.
At the end of the day he is a product of modern day football where money and success are more important than what I like to call "Sport". Sport in the true meaning of the word. I define sport as competition and the survival of the strongest in the context of an identified set of rules.
If you break the rules then what is the point of participating in the competition? It makes the whole exercise futile and nonsensical.
I will not single out Henry as some kind of footballing antichrist because the attitude of cheating and unfair play saturates modern day football. It was a big game; a playoff game between two nations. The last and only chance to reach the World Cup. This is why the controversy is so big. But cheating takes place most games and its very unfortunate to see that in the sport I have loved since I was a young child.
In a sense is good that the situation has caused so much uproar. Winning unfairly is not the same as winning and in a way I’m glad that FIFA and France were in so much pressure after the contentious decision to grant France’s unfair goal. If you are prepared to cheat, be prepared to face the music if your caught red handed.
Again a good comment Ed, it is very interesting.
To conclude, I didn't cheat, my country didn't cheat. Thierry Henry cheated, the referee didn't see it. I can just be sorry about that but it will not change that I will be proudly supporting France in June. Because it's a fact now, France will be at the World Cup!
What do you think about the idea that Ireland could be an exeptional 33rd contender?
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