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Well everyone seems to be talking about the France vRep. of Ireland game which happened on Wednesday but not about the actual match. It was all about Hnery handled the ball which directly led to France’s goal in extra time.

Here is the Hand of Henry:

There is no denying the Henry handled the ball. In fact he handled it twice. Henry himself has admitted it and said it was “instinctive”. Looking at the replays it looks like the 1st one may have been but the 2nd touch he seems to scoop the ball into the penalty area for Gallas to head to ball into the net. (Looking at replays there was properly an offside too).

Apparently Henry told the ref that he handled it but not clear if it was after the final whistle or the goal. Hand balls happen all the time in football whether deliberate or not but most of the time the ref or linesman spots it, stops play (or disallows goal), maybe gives a card and the game goes on. If the ref/linesman spotted this incident (not idea why the linesman didnt), then there wouldnt be this huge “controversy”.

So far Blatter and Platini (heads of FIFA and UEFA) have not commented on it. No surprise as they are generally hopeless. Who knows what would happen if it was the other way around and e.g. Robbie Keane handled the ball. Maybe this is time to finally have video replays/refs. I dont think it would work having it all the time as football is fast paced and we dont want lots of stopping in the action like other sports. However, having it for goal mouth incidents. To see if the ball went over the line or if there were any fouls etc in the penalty box leading up to a goal.

Its all to late now for Rep. of Ireland and the likely hood of a replay is very very slim. I think real sorry for Ireland. However, one way of looking at it is that they had 3 very good chances to score another goal and maybe should have cleared the ball before it even got to Henry. Also, they were awarded a penalty in the Georgia game in the qualifiers which was for absolutely nothing so maybe everything balances out?? I personally think if they was a replay it would open a huge can of worms. It would set a precident and mean all games in the future with controversal incidents could be replayed or teams would demand replays after games they had lost because of silly things. It would be madness!

It has to be said though that the reputation of Thierry Henry has certainly gone down for many people. He doesnt seem the type of player to “cheat”, maybe it all instinctive. Either way, he will have to do some very good PR to improve his reputation now – he may now be remembered not for a really really good player but for that hand ball.

As I have said there has been many comments from players and managers but one of the most vocal is Roy Keane. Now as a United fan I think Roy Keane is a United legend. However, that is as a player and not as a person/manager. He certainly has seem issues with the FAI (Football Association of Ireland)! He said that they (Rep. of Ireland team) should get over it. I am sure if it was his team he wouldnt let it drop. Although a different type of situation, he certainly didnt forgot about it back in around 2001 when he basically tried to break Haland’s leg with a knee high “challenge”. This was after an incident in around 1998 when Keane tried to tackle Haland and suffered a cruciate ligaments injury.

You can see the Keane press conference where he talks about the Henry incident - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/8370497.stm

(Reading in news this morning that Eric Cantona said about the Henry incident. “What shocks me the most is that this player, at the end of the game, in front of the TV cameras, went to sit down next to an Ireland player to comfort him – when he had just screwed him,”. “If I had been an Irishman, he wouldn’t have lasted three seconds.”).