Republic Of Ireland v France

[Puskas]

I can understand folk being angry with Henry, but what is he going to do? It isn't his call to make, and with his country on the verge of qualifying he isn't going to turn around and say yeah I handballed it, that's if he knew it was as blatant as it was.

Wouldn't have made a difference anyway. After the infamous Samuel tackle, didn't Ronaldo tell Styles it wasn't a penalty?

No, he didn't.

But don't let that stop you.

[superjohnmcginlay]

I can understand folk being angry with Henry, but what is he going to do? It isn't his call to make, and with his country on the verge of qualifying he isn't going to turn around and say yeah I handballed it, that's if he knew it was as blatant as it was.

Wouldn't have made a difference anyway. After the infamous Samuel tackle, didn't Ronaldo tell Styles it wasn't a penalty?

No, he didn't.

But don't let that stop you.

He didnt roll around screaming which is as good as.

[as]

What a guy.

God bless Terry Henry

[Wandering Willy]

Couple of things here:

Firstly, a part of me feels sympathy for any team that loses any game, nevermind one of such importance, to a blatent cheat. That being said, my partisan side has no sympathy those ROI fans who were the first to rejoice in the "Hand of God "incident and our none qualification for Euro 2008. I'm English, we're in, so I couldn't give a shit.

Secondly, I'm sure there will be calls for the video review system again after this. I can't ever see that happening. I find it hard to believe that no official saw Henry remove the lace from the ball before crossing it. Would an extra liner on each side help? I suppose we have to rely on some after game punishment system or better still some honesty from players. Can't see that happening. Not good for the game.

[Prufrock]

Couple of things here:

Firstly, a part of me feels sympathy for any team that loses any game, nevermind one of such importance, to a blatent cheat. That being said, my partisan side has no sympathy those ROI fans who were the first to rejoice in the "Hand of God "incident and our none qualification for Euro 2008. I'm English, we're in, so I couldn't give a shit.

Secondly, I'm sure there will be calls for the video review system again after this. I can't ever see that happening. I find it hard to believe that no official saw Henry remove the lace from the ball before crossing it. Would an extra liner on each side help? I suppose we have to rely on some after game punishment system or better still some honesty from players. Can't see that happening. Not good for the game.

I think if anything, it reinforces this two extra officials jobby they are trialling in the Europa league. They would have spotted it.

[Wandering Willy]

Couple of things here:

Firstly, a part of me feels sympathy for any team that loses any game, nevermind one of such importance, to a blatent cheat. That being said, my partisan side has no sympathy those ROI fans who were the first to rejoice in the "Hand of God "incident and our none qualification for Euro 2008. I'm English, we're in, so I couldn't give a shit.

Secondly, I'm sure there will be calls for the video review system again after this. I can't ever see that happening. I find it hard to believe that no official saw Henry remove the lace from the ball before crossing it. Would an extra liner on each side help? I suppose we have to rely on some after game punishment system or better still some honesty from players. Can't see that happening. Not good for the game.

I think if anything, it reinforces this two extra officials jobby they are trialling in the Europa league. They would have spotted it.

I wasn't aware of this. Is it 2 liners per side?

[Prufrock]

Couple of things here:

Firstly, a part of me feels sympathy for any team that loses any game, nevermind one of such importance, to a blatent cheat. That being said, my partisan side has no sympathy those ROI fans who were the first to rejoice in the "Hand of God "incident and our none qualification for Euro 2008. I'm English, we're in, so I couldn't give a shit.

Secondly, I'm sure there will be calls for the video review system again after this. I can't ever see that happening. I find it hard to believe that no official saw Henry remove the lace from the ball before crossing it. Would an extra liner on each side help? I suppose we have to rely on some after game punishment system or better still some honesty from players. Can't see that happening. Not good for the game.

I think if anything, it reinforces this two extra officials jobby they are trialling in the Europa league. They would have spotted it.

I wasn't aware of this. Is it 2 liners per side?

Extra one in each penalty area. I think the idea is they run up and down the 18 yard line opposite to the linesman's side.

http://www.epltalk.com/five-referees-at ... -game/8077

[Wandering Willy]

Couple of things here:

Firstly, a part of me feels sympathy for any team that loses any game, nevermind one of such importance, to a blatent cheat. That being said, my partisan side has no sympathy those ROI fans who were the first to rejoice in the "Hand of God "incident and our none qualification for Euro 2008. I'm English, we're in, so I couldn't give a shit.

Secondly, I'm sure there will be calls for the video review system again after this. I can't ever see that happening. I find it hard to believe that no official saw Henry remove the lace from the ball before crossing it. Would an extra liner on each side help? I suppose we have to rely on some after game punishment system or better still some honesty from players. Can't see that happening. Not good for the game.

I think if anything, it reinforces this two extra officials jobby they are trialling in the Europa league. They would have spotted it.

I wasn't aware of this. Is it 2 liners per side?

Extra one in each penalty area. I think the idea is they run up and down the 18 yard line opposite to the linesman's side.

http://www.epltalk.com/five-referees-at ... -game/8077

Thanks for that Pru. I am reading that to be an extra official behind the goal to monitor the box. I like it. My concern with 2 linesman per side was that one could flag for offside in a tight decision and one wouldn't leading to uproar from fans and players. Hopefully it will reduce diving in the box (red card offense for me).

[Prufrock]

Couple of things here:

Firstly, a part of me feels sympathy for any team that loses any game, nevermind one of such importance, to a blatent cheat. That being said, my partisan side has no sympathy those ROI fans who were the first to rejoice in the "Hand of God "incident and our none qualification for Euro 2008. I'm English, we're in, so I couldn't give a shit.

Secondly, I'm sure there will be calls for the video review system again after this. I can't ever see that happening. I find it hard to believe that no official saw Henry remove the lace from the ball before crossing it. Would an extra liner on each side help? I suppose we have to rely on some after game punishment system or better still some honesty from players. Can't see that happening. Not good for the game.

I think if anything, it reinforces this two extra officials jobby they are trialling in the Europa league. They would have spotted it.

I wasn't aware of this. Is it 2 liners per side?

Extra one in each penalty area. I think the idea is they run up and down the 18 yard line opposite to the linesman's side.

http://www.epltalk.com/five-referees-at ... -game/8077

Thanks for that Pru. I am reading that to be an extra official behind the goal to monitor the box. I like it. My concern with 2 linesman per side was that one could flag for offside in a tight decision and one wouldn't leading to uproar from fans and players. Hopefully it will reduce diving in the box (red card offense for me).

I think they run around behind the goal but I'm pretty, almost 100% sure they are allowed on the pitch, up to the 18 yard line. How it works in practise I am not sure. Yeah, you can't really have two linos trying to give the same decision. I think the reasons they are there are did it cross the line jobbies, and for diving and penalties.

[Tombwfc]

I can understand folk being angry with Henry, but what is he going to do? It isn't his call to make, and with his country on the verge of qualifying he isn't going to turn around and say yeah I handballed it, that's if he knew it was as blatant as it was.

Wouldn't have made a difference anyway. After the infamous Samuel tackle, didn't Ronaldo tell Styles it wasn't a penalty? FIFA and UEFA have so artificially boosted the referee's egos that had Henry said "I handballed it," the ref probably would have booked him for dissent.

According to Henry, he did.

“I told the referree, but he said ‘you are not the ref ’,”

Of course, I'm not entirely sure when he said it. As soon as Gallas nodded it in he was off celebrating like he'd won the World Cup, so it wasn't then. If he tells the referee 5 minutes later, whats the ref supposed to do then? Reverse time?

At a guess, he probably did own up, but after it was far too late, which makes him look good. Incidentally he appears to be doing the exact same thing with the whole "Ireland deserve a replay" thing. Not a chance of changing anything, but it makes him look less of a bastard.

[Prufrock]

Who the feck are the mental mental people who want to become referees?! I'm not sure how it is Maradona-esque either, he jumped up and 100% clearly punched it in. I have no idea how the officials missed the Maradona one. This one I can see. It hits Henry's hand, it's a definite foul and the Irish are very hard done to. Beyond that... I'm not sure how Henry is a 'disgrace' either. French commentary was interesting, the first replay the commentator just says, 'degueulasse', which means 'disgusting'.

[Zulus Thousand of em]

Who the feck are the mental mental people who want to become referees?!

Wibble!

[Wandering Willy]

I can understand folk being angry with Henry, but what is he going to do? It isn't his call to make, and with his country on the verge of qualifying he isn't going to turn around and say yeah I handballed it, that's if he knew it was as blatant as it was.

Wouldn't have made a difference anyway. After the infamous Samuel tackle, didn't Ronaldo tell Styles it wasn't a penalty? FIFA and UEFA have so artificially boosted the referee's egos that had Henry said "I handballed it," the ref probably would have booked him for dissent.

According to Henry, he did.

“I told the referree, but he said ‘you are not the ref ’,”

Of course, I'm not entirely sure when he said it. As soon as Gallas nodded it in he was off celebrating like he'd won the World Cup, so it wasn't then. If he tells the referee 5 minutes later, whats the ref supposed to do then? Reverse time?

At a guess, he probably did own up, but after it was far too late, which makes him look good. Incidentally he appears to be doing the exact same thing with the whole "Ireland deserve a replay" thing. Not a chance of changing anything, but it makes him look less of a bastard.

FIFA have already said that the replay would never happen. Ref's decision is final as it should be or we would have a never ending series of replay demands.

Of course, if Henry was such a sportsman he could lead the calls for France to withdraw from the World Cup giving ROI a place by default (assumption). That bastion of fair play Platini could back him up.

[thebish]

i think the problem I have with Terry Tiny Tears is his association with Arsenal and Wenger and a difficult-to-put-into-words air of the "we are special - we are different to other football players - we play the pure right way - we are beyong criticism" etc.. and then it turns out he is (and always has been) just as much an instinctive cheating fecker as anyone else.

it's not so much the deed - it was the previous moral highground that irritates me...

[Bruno]

it is funny though

[Tombwfc]

Who the feck are the mental mental people who want to become referees?! I'm not sure how it is Maradona-esque either, he jumped up and 100% clearly punched it in. I have no idea how the officials missed the Maradona one. This one I can see. It hits Henry's hand, it's a definite foul and the Irish are very hard done to. Beyond that... I'm not sure how Henry is a 'disgrace' either. French commentary was interesting, the first replay the commentator just says, 'degueulasse', which means 'disgusting'.

The second contact is what turns it from being accidental into being more deliberate IMO (albeit not on the scale of punching the fecking thing into the net).

I can see why the ref and lino missed it, and I can see why Henry did it and didn't own up straight away. It is still cheating though, and so I think he warrants his status as a 'disgrace'. I think it's a small price to pay for unfairly ensuring that you get to play in one last World Cup, while many of the Irish won't.

While it'll never happen, I do think it would be a great thing for football if France did offer to replay the game. They'd look like the saviours of all that's good and proper about football, and if they turned up at all they'd have enough beat the Irish.

As an aside, I thought Trappatoni made an interesting observation in amongst all this. In two legged games that end level, is it not unfair that whoever hosts the second leg gets an extra half hour at home?

[Worthy4England]

I can understand folk being angry with Henry, but what is he going to do? It isn't his call to make, and with his country on the verge of qualifying he isn't going to turn around and say yeah I handballed it, that's if he knew it was as blatant as it was.

Wouldn't have made a difference anyway. After the infamous Samuel tackle, didn't Ronaldo tell Styles it wasn't a penalty? FIFA and UEFA have so artificially boosted the referee's egos that had Henry said "I handballed it," the ref probably would have booked him for dissent.

According to Henry, he did.

“I told the referree, but he said ‘you are not the ref ’,”

Of course, I'm not entirely sure when he said it. As soon as Gallas nodded it in he was off celebrating like he'd won the World Cup, so it wasn't then. If he tells the referee 5 minutes later, whats the ref supposed to do then? Reverse time?

At a guess, he probably did own up, but after it was far too late, which makes him look good. Incidentally he appears to be doing the exact same thing with the whole "Ireland deserve a replay" thing. Not a chance of changing anything, but it makes him look less of a bastard.

FIFA have already said that the replay would never happen. Ref's decision is final as it should be or we would have a never ending series of replay demands.

Of course, if Henry was such a sportsman he could lead the calls for France to withdraw from the World Cup giving ROI a place by default (assumption). That bastion of fair play Platini could back him up.

Still not heard a peep anywhere from Platini...strange that - he's usually got lots to say for himself.

[bristol_Wanderer3]

I don't get some of the media comments about this. Everyone is saying the "Irish were robbed of a place in the world cup". They weren't - they were robbed of staying level on aggregate with 15 minutes to go. Given France were pushing forward more at that time, it was 50-50 at best that they would have won from there. Also, Anelka's penalty looked nailed on to me - the referee/assistant made two major mistakes to me, one for France and one against them.

I don't think the game should be replayed, I don't think Henry is a cheat, although it was a regrettable incident, I do think the officials made desperate errors, but it is not easy running miles at the age of 40, and then retaining mental sharpness to see incidents in a blink of an eye.

They should definitely introduce more assistant referees behind the goal, but I am against video technology except for balls over the line incidents. Football depends on continuity of action, we don't want a 10 second delay for a replay (plus time to assess the replay) over every contentious decision, of which there are many each game.

[Zulus Thousand of em]

Still not heard a peep anywhere from Platini...strange that - he's usually got lots to say for himself.

That's because his plan has come together very nicely.

[Worthy4England]

Still not heard a peep anywhere from Platini...strange that - he's usually got lots to say for himself.

That's because his plan has come together very nicely.

And at least Roy Keane seems sympathetic towards their plight.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 370327.stm