It seems like we will be able to follow this story as much as we can follow Ligue 1 or any other French football story. It seems to be changing everyday. And I am sure more and more will come up in the coming months to South Africa. And, if by some miracle, France wins the World Cup, we will never hear the end of this one.
So, what is going on today in the France vs. Ireland story today?
As many of you might have heard already, Thierry Henry said that Ireland has the right to be upset and that a replay would be the fairest way to settle the dispute. Dispite FIFA already denying Ireland a replay, the French striker continues to put his foot in his mouth at every possible moment.
Since FIFA already said that a playoff would not be held, the best option for Henry would have been to be quiet about the situation. Yet, this recent comment will muddy up the waters more, and give Irish supporters more ammo for why there should be another playoff match.
Fellow Frenchman and former Henry manager Arsene Wenger said that he would support a replay as well.
While Henry was shooting off his mouth, Giovanni Trappatoni was doing the same thing in Italy. In an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport, Trappaotoni said that after looking at the replay and seeing that there was a double fault (the offsides and handball) that “it was murder.” Compared to the tone that Trappatoni had just yesterday, where he seemed quiet calm about the situation, he seems over the hill about it now. Just bring Giovanni to Italy, and I guess he speaks him mind, eh?
While Robbie Keane is understandibly upset about this whole situation, Roy Keane has a different tune. While Roy did say that the call was a mistake, Ireland benefitted from poor officiating in their other World Cup qualifying matchups as well. Keane said that the supporters and Trappatoni deserve better, but that the FAI didn’t deserve any better.
“There was one match against Georgia where Ireland got a penalty and it was one of the worst decisions I’ve ever seen which changed the whole course of the game,” said Keane, according to RTE. “I don’t remember the FAI after the game saying we should give them a replay.” Keane also said that the goal could have been just as easily scored because of poor defending if the hand ball didn’t occur.
Another person that seems to have an opinion in this matter as well is Sir Alex Ferguson. Ferguson, who seems to have an opinion about every official on the pitch recently, said that Martin Hansson couldn’t see the play, and the call was correct.
“The referee could not see the hand of Henry. The referee gave a fantastic match, it was a wonderful performance. But this leads to the question of technology. Until FIFA change my mind, there is nothing to do,” said Fergie
Even with all the talk about who did and who didn’t, there is one thing that is for sure…Raymond Domenech, who was able to qualify his team for the World Cup, is a richer man today. According to L”Equipe, Domenech made 862,000 Euros as a results of Wednesday’s match. I’m sure there will be much debate as to if he deserves it or not.
Filed under: French National Team Tagged: | Arsene Wenger, Irish National Team, Raymond Domenech, Roy Keane, Sir Alex Ferguson, Thierry Henry
862 K would make a nice severance package, don’t ya think?
Roy Keane is not Robbie Keane’s brother or love child or any such thing – Robbie who is from Dublin the capital of ireland plays for Spurs while Roy from Cork a provincial town is a traitorous sociopath who manges a failing lower league outfit, I think. He would have been Ferguson’s successor but he couldnt keep his gob shut – but Roy learned a lot from the whingemeister.
We cant complain about human error – Altho we all hate FIFA in Ireland and we are suffering – Sport like life is not fair – Like rugby weve got to have TV
I think FIFA needs a major overhaul, which I agree 100%. I think most people agree with that.
I just don’t buy the whole slippery slopes argument. If we care about Respect and Fairness in sport than there’s an opprotunity to right that starting now. Logistically, it would be a nightmare to go back and replay every dodgy game from the past, but why should that prevent us from starting now? Particularly in such an egregious case with such high stakes on the outcome? The slippery slopes argument is an argument in favor of the status quo. And FIFA has beene excrecable on this whole point. Just look at their web site now. They don’t even acknowledge that any amiss happened at all. I think its time for FAs to start really pressuring them to change or to start breaking away from the Association. This has been absolutely the WORST year I can recall for poor officiating, calling the game into question just at a point where its becoming more popular than ever — and the old men in Zurich all hiding under their desks pretending that, to paraphrase another Frenchman, “…all is for the best…”.
Tim is right that FIFA is completly tone-deaf on this. Read the recap of the game on fifa.com–tries to sweep the controversy under the rug. Nevertheless, the vehemence of the vitriolic attacks on Henry is absurd in the context of Ireland’s willingness to take advantage of an obvious bad call in the game against Georgia.
I don’t agree with people attacking Henry. The Irish players have already said that if they were in the same situation, in the heat of the moment, they might have done the same thing. A lot of the vitriol is coming from outside Ireland. For example, I checked the nationalities of some of the uglier comments directed at Henry/France on a video on youtube. They came from Italy, Australia, Spain, England, Serbia and Germany.We are angry at FIFA and UEFA because of the unfair draw and the perception that they wanted the big teams to win.
Maertin,
Ireland is completely right that the play-off process was rigged to favor the bigger names in football. I agree that it was scandalously unfair.
I think Russia would disagree.
Russia failed to take care of business. But I guarantee you if you asked Russia (before the play-offs) if they would rather play Portugal or Slovenia, they would’ve said Slovenia.
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