FIFA Decline to Sanction Thierry Henry

FIFA have decided not to sanction France international striker Thierry Henry for a handball incident in their play-off match against the Republic of Ireland. Henry controlled the ball with his hand prior to crossing the ball to William Gallas who netted the equaliser which put France ahead 2-1 on aggregate and propeled them to the World Cup finals in South Africa.

The Hand of Gaul – the Background

However, that was far from the end of the matter. The Football Association of Ireland embarked on a series of official protests and media appearances, and were joined by the Republic’s leading politicians as Irish furore over the non call of the handball exploded. Even the Republic’s Prime Minister, called the Taoiseach, (pronounced TEE-SHOCH to rhyme with Loch as in Loch Lomond) Brian Cowen said he would raise the controversy with President Nicolas Sarkozy at a European summit.

For a week, the incident was the most discussed event in the world as first, fans debated whether the Republic of Ireland should have been awarded a free kick and the goal disallowed. Very quickly thereafter, the conversation moved onto the issue of video replays and the use of technology in football, with the incident becoming a poster child for the advocates of increased technology use.

Then the incident took on a life of its own as the reaction and the nature of the complaints of the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) became the story as opposed to the incident. Firstly, they called for the match to be replayed. No match has ever been replayed because of a refereeing decision, not even the infamous ‘Hand of God’ game in 1986 where Diego Maradona put the ball directly into the net in a World Cup quarter final against England. More spectacularly and famously, in the 1966 World Cup final England benefited from a dubious call against Germany when a goal was awarded when the ball did not appear to have crossed the line. The Soviet linesman later confessed memories of the suffering of his people at Stalingrad during the war had made him unsympathetic to the plight of the Germans. Neither the FA nor the DFB called for replays then. Even last weekend, a goal was scored with a hand in a Scottish Cup tie, with no call for replays and sanctions against the offending player.

FAI Find a Precedent

The FAI cited a game between Uzbekistan and Bahrain in a play-off for the 2006 World Cup in Germany. The referee there made a mistake after a penalty had been awarded. Uzbekistan had a penalty. He saw that an Uzbek player had encroached into the penalty box while it was being taken. There was no issue with what he saw, and nobody disputed the encroachment. Instead of ordering the penalty to be retaken as the law states, he ordered a free-kick to Bahrain. He made what legal systems call an ‘Error of Law’, as opposed to an ‘Error of Fact,’ along the lines of what had transpired in Dublin and Wembley.

Georgia on Some Minds

FIFA described it as a ‘technical error,’ and said in that instance, the referee was guilty of wrongly applying the rules rather than missing an offence. Still there was significant world sympathy for the plight of the Irish. Then events began to take a turn the other way, as a combination of more facts emerging and the FAI’s own conduct began to shift world opinion.

Irish Justice Minister Dermot Ahern had led the first demands for the rematch, in ‘the interests of Fair Play,’ backed by assistant manager Liam Brady and followed later by the Taoiseach, Brian Cowen. Then former Irish international and captain Roy Keane, now manager of Ipswich Town, was asked about the matter.

Keane had been in a simmering row with the FAI hierarchy since he walked out on the side during the World Cup in 2002. No-one can deny he had his own agenda, but nevertheless what he revealed had a lasting impact on the matter. He pointed out that Ireland had benefited from a terrible penalty award in the Group home game with Georgia in the campaign, and the FAI hadn’t been remotely interested in ‘Fair Play’ then. Keane observed that they were demanding the French Football Association agree to a replay but hadn’t done the same when they were the beneficiaries of what all had agreed was a wrong call. He accused the FAI of rank hypocrisy.

Take Blatt! – Sepp Ridicules the FAI Publicly

Then the issue if possible became even more bizarre. At a press conference, FIFA Head Sepp Blatter revealed that the FAI had asked to be the 33rd country at the World Cup finals and had asked for automatic qualification. His demeanour could be best described as ridiculing the request and was not his greatest moment, even though the idea was preposterous. The FAI once more took offence at his behaviour and managed to briefly reclaim victim status, pointing out rightly that Blatter should not have made the appeal public, far less ridiculed it. They were right on both counts. But the times had moved on, and the rest of the world was beginning to tire of the FAI’s antics anyway. Every fan in the world had seen their side suffer from a poor call in matches before and knew the pain of the Irish. But they also knew they hadn’t reacted like the FAI.

The FAI were now close to being a laughing stock and a great deal of sympathy had dissipated as people took into account the dignified conduct and respect for the game of the Germans in 1966 and the English in 1986, together with the willingness of the Irish themselves to accept errors of fact in refereeing when it benefited them. Jokes about Ireland trying to enter the Boat Race, the Miss World contest, American Idol and even the Superbowl were doing the rounds. The Thierry Henry jokes which had been plentiful in the days after the match, had been replaced with Ireland jokes.

Public and world opinion had turned and by the time the draw for the finals was made in Johannesburg, the issue was a footnote for many people. Nonetheless, Blatter was then humiliatingly forced to apologise for making fun of the FAI’s 33rd team request in public. That was the last high for the FAI in a battle they had always been destined to lose, but could have lost with far greater dignity.

The End of the Matter and Likely Aftermath

One outstanding issue remained. As part of FIFA’s general appeasement exercise which had begun in the early days of the incident, they had agreed to launch an investigation of Thierry Henry for handling the ball. Deliberate handballs happen in matches every day of the week, in every league and every country, but the initially successful media campaign of the FAI had forced FIFA onto the back foot.

Had FIFA sanctioned Henry, it would have opened floodgates for every handball, poor tackle and run of the mill incident to be a matter for an aggrieved party to appeal to their national football association or to FIFA. But FIFA had foolishly offered the investigation while in full appeasement mode, and – one would guess – always intended to cynically dispose of it quietly when the heat died down.

Their ruling admitted that the issue was outside their ability to consider under their own rules from the outset, a finding that hardly required an investigation. Their disciplinary committee said “it had no legal right to consider the case under its own rules, declaring that a handball offence was not classed as ‘a serious infringement’ necessary to prosecute Henry. There is no other legal text that would allow the committee to impose sanctions for any incidents missed by match officials.”

As a result, Henry will not miss any games for France in South Africa, and the matter is now closed. There will be an aftermath however. The issue of video replays and use of technology certainly has a new incident to add to 1966 and 1986 to augment its case. The FAI and Irish politicians have heaped ridicule on the footballers and fans of an undeserving nation. Their fans are among the best in Europe and the Irish national side regularly punches above its weight in qualification. However the FAI will face scrutiny and awkward questions every time a call goes in the Republic of Ireland’s favour, and eventually those officials who spearheaded this campaign may be forced to step down for the good of Irish football.

For Henry himself, he will be remembered for this, but only among many other positive things he has done in his career. However, one suspects he will be very careful what he does ‘avec les mains’ during World Cup 2010. If not, wouldn’t it be fitting if he did it against Argentina? Wonder if they would have the ‘Gaul’ to complain. Their manager is Diego Maradona after all.