And I thought we'd heard the last of this...

[rockthereebok]

Henry off to face a FIFA disciplinary committee today. Wonder what his punishment will be? Maybe they'll make him play the whole World Cup with his hands tied behinf his back?

[Jakerbeef]

Clean gets away with it, good example for fair play, etc.

[Prufrock]

As he should do. It was a fecking handball for Christ's sakes. He should have been booked at the time, and many would argue there should be the possibility to give retrospective bookings as well as red cards, if that were the case then he should have got that. All this talk of match bans was ridiculous.

[boltonboris]

As he should do. It was a fecking handball for Christ's sakes. He should have been booked at the time, and many would argue there should be the possibility to give retrospective bookings as well as red cards, if that were the case then he should have got that. All this talk of match bans was ridiculous.

If you ban him for delibrate hand ball, then you'd have to ban everybody going back and going forwards.. Would somebody get banned for the same thing if they were 5 goals down?

[Hoboh]

As he should do. It was a fecking handball for Christ's sakes. He should have been booked at the time, and many would argue there should be the possibility to give retrospective bookings as well as red cards, if that were the case then he should have got that. All this talk of match bans was ridiculous.

He's French he should be shot!

[H. Pedersen]

I think Irish defender Sean St. Ledger put the whole thing into perspective:

But in a statement issued yesterday, FIFA said it had no basis on which to punish Henry.

"The disciplinary committee reached the conclusion that there was no legal foundation for the committee to consider the case because handling the ball cannot be regarded as a serious infringement as stipulated in article 77a of the FIFA disciplinary code," it said.

"There is no other legal text that would allow the committee to impose sanctions for any incidents missed by match officials."

The decision means Henry, 32, will not face a ban for any of France's matches in the finals.

Ireland had been angered even before the match by FIFA's decision to seed the playoffs, allowing teams such as Portugal and France to avoid each other.

St Ledger said yesterday that he thought the ruling was poor.

"They said they've got no legal foundation but they still had the power to change the rules and introduce the seedings," he said.

"I think if they have got that kind of power to change that rule I don't understand why they haven't got the power to make a ruling here. It's confusing but at the same time not surprising.

Obviously, the answer is that the seedings HELPED France, who just happen to be the country that UEFA's president played for, while punishing Henry would HURT them. We're allowed to change the rules to HELP big teams *cough*Liverpool*cough*Champions League*cough*5th place*cough* but not to hurt them.

[Prufrock]

I think Irish defender Sean St. Ledger put the whole thing into perspective:

But in a statement issued yesterday, FIFA said it had no basis on which to punish Henry.

"The disciplinary committee reached the conclusion that there was no legal foundation for the committee to consider the case because handling the ball cannot be regarded as a serious infringement as stipulated in article 77a of the FIFA disciplinary code," it said.

"There is no other legal text that would allow the committee to impose sanctions for any incidents missed by match officials."

The decision means Henry, 32, will not face a ban for any of France's matches in the finals.

Ireland had been angered even before the match by FIFA's decision to seed the playoffs, allowing teams such as Portugal and France to avoid each other.

St Ledger said yesterday that he thought the ruling was poor.

"They said they've got no legal foundation but they still had the power to change the rules and introduce the seedings," he said.

"I think if they have got that kind of power to change that rule I don't understand why they haven't got the power to make a ruling here. It's confusing but at the same time not surprising.

Obviously, the answer is that the seedings HELPED France, who just happen to be the country that UEFA's president played for, while punishing Henry would HURT them. We're allowed to change the rules to HELP big teams *cough*Liverpool*cough*Champions League*cough*5th place*cough* but not to hurt them.

If you take the mental handball=ban for life insinuation out you are spot on. The problem was the ridiculous decision to seed the play-offs, and Ireland can be rightly p*ssed off with that. As can many teams with a constant bias towards the top teams who generate more revenue for these tournaments. However, any punishments talked about retrospectively for the actual handball are ridiculous. It was a poor referreeing decision. Despite my belief there is a tendency to treat the bigger teams differently, I don't think had the glove been on the other hand Ireland would have been kicked out either.