There isn’t much to be said about the France v Ireland World Cup Qualifier that hasn’t already been said: Henry cheated and the Ireland team was robbed. People can call for a replay of the game until they are blue in the face but this will not happen: Law 5 of the Laws of the Game gives the referee “full authority to enforce the Laws of the Game in connection with the match to which he has been appointed” and states “decisions of the referee regarding facts connected with play are final.” Whether this travesty will help FIFA to finally allow the use of video technology to assist officials during matchplay is doubtful – the match report on FIFA’s website doesn’t even mention the controversy. Whether Thierry Henry’s reputation will suffer as a result of his cheating is less doubful. Whether Swedish match official Martin Hansson and referee’s assistants Stefan Wittberg and Fredrik Nilsson will need to retire to an undisclosed location is likely – even the Swedish press are condemning them. Below is a round up of links to give you a sense of what’s being said about the match in the Irish, English and French football press and it’s place in the history of the game. Meanwhile, Portugal, Slovenia, Greece, Algeria and Uruguay also qualified on Wednesday.
- Henry’s admission that he intentionally handled the ball.
- An insightful opinion piece on how Henry could have “handled” things differently.
- A round up of reactions from members of the Ireland squad.
- A round up of the reaction in the French press.
- A round up of reaction in the British press.
- A round up of internet virals mocking Henry.
- A top ten list of handballs and other World Cup injustices complete with YouTube links.
- Possible effects of calls for boycotts of the products Henry promotes.
- Football reporter for the Guardian and Irishman Barry Glendenning’s video analysis.
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