Ireland probably won’t invade France, but there’s quite an international incident over a non-call in the World Cup qualifier between France and Ireland Nov. 18 in France.
Despite Ireland’s wails that it was robbed by a referee’s non-call – and it was – FIFA got it right by refusing to order a replay.
The stakes were high: the winner of the two-game aggregate would go to the World Cup. France had won, 1-0 in Ireland, but now Ireland had a 1-0 lead in the 113th minute. France scored when star Thierry Henry flicked the ball with the outside of his right foot to William Gallas, who headed it in for a 1-1 tie, but a 2-1 aggregate win for the French. (Had the goal not been scored and the game ended 1-0 for the Irish, a shootout would have taken place to determine the World Cup berth.)
What none of the game officials saw was that Henry, charging inside the 6 from the left, patted the ball with his left hand about waist high, knocking it to his foot. No two ways about it, hand ball. Henry admitted it. "I have never denied the ball was controlled with my hand,” he said. “I told the Irish players, the referee and the media this after the game." But the referees didn’t call it.
The Irish were incensed and demanded a replay. Even Henry agreed it would be fair. "Naturally I feel embarrassed at the way we won and feel extremely sorry for the Irish who definitely deserve to be in South Africa," he said in a statement issued on his behalf on Friday.
"Of course, the fairest solution would be to replay the game but it is not in my control. There is little more I can do apart from admit the ball had contact with my hand leading up to our equalising goal and I feel very sorry for the Irish."
Irish captain Robbie Keane, who scored his team's goal in Paris, responded by issuing his own statement.
"On behalf of the Republic of Ireland players, I would like to thank Thierry Henry for his statement," he said.
"As captain of the French team, to make such a statement took courage and honor, and all of us recognize that. As captain of the Republic of Ireland team, I would also be happy for a replay to happen in the interest of fair play so that whichever team qualifies, can do so with their heads held high.
"We can only hope that the French Football Federation might accept the wishes of both captains in the best interests of the game."
The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) board met on Friday and issued a statement saying said it had called on the French federation to "join with it and the captains of the French and Irish teams... to request a replay from FIFA that would protect the integrity of the game worldwide and the pride of the French national team."
Ireland cited a match from 2005, when Uzbekistan and Bahrain were competing for a spot in the 2006 World Cup in Germany. FIFA ordered the match replayed after the referee incorrectly Bahrain an indirect free kick after a player encroached the penalty area before Uzbekistan, leading 1-0, successfully took a penalty kick. The referee should have ordered the penalty kick to be retaken.
Former French star Arsene Wenger, Henry's former manager at Arsenal, jumped into the debate and agreed that a replay would be the fairest solution.
"France has to say 'yes it was a handball and we offer a replay'," he said. "It is embarrassing to qualify the way we qualified. We want to beat Ireland properly and that didn't happen."
Wenger, who agreed to replay an FA Cup tie against Sheffield United in 1999 over an issue of fair play added:
"Thierry Henry is not the problem. He played here for 10 years and has always been super fair. He has come out and said 'I made a mistake, I touched the ball with my hand'.
"Football and sport in general is full of heroes who have cheated 10 times more than Thierry. "A player of his stature has a massive pressure on his shoulders and if somebody has to do something for Thierry, it is French football and France as a country, not to leave him out there alone against the whole world."
The replay is not going to happen and it shouldn’t. Despite pleas from the government of Ireland as well as the FAI, FIFA said today the result would stand.
''The result of the match cannot be changed and the match cannot be replayed,'' FIFA said in a statement. ''As is clearly mentioned in the Laws of the Game, during matches, decisions are taken by the referee and these decisions are final.''
FAI in Dublin responded by petitioning its French counterpart to ask FIFA to change its mind, but the FFF said the decision by soccer's governing body's is final.
''The result of the match can therefore not be modified, nor the match be replayed,'' the federation said in a statement, adding that it ''understands the disappointment and the bitterness of the Irish players, leaders and supporters.''
Soccer’s Law 5 states, “The decisions of the referee regarding facts connected with play, including whether or not a goal is scored and the result of the match, are final.” If the official realizes he is incorrect after consultation with his assistant referees or the fourth official on the sideline, he can change his mind only if play has not been restarted or the game is over.
While a replay would seem to be fair in light of Henry’s own admission, it is a different situation than the 2005 Uzbekistan-Bahrain game or the Arsenal-Sheffield 1999 FA Cup replay. In the Uzbekistan-Bahrain match, the mistake was a misapplication of the Laws of the game rather than a judgment call (or non call). Wenger offered the Sheffield replay when one of his players scored the winning goal after he intercepted a teammate’s throw to United after the ball had been kicked out to stop play for an injury, violating unwritten soccer etiquette.
In this instance, the mistake was the referee’s judgment, or lack thereof, during the course of play.
At least one Irish fan appears to have accepted the ruling. Roy Keane, a former star of Ireland’s national team who is now the manager at Ipswich Town in England, was critical of the Irish federation and the Irish team on Friday.
“I’ve been amazed at the commotion that’s been going for the last few days,” the often cantankerous and frank Keane told reporters at a news conference before his club’s weekend match. “I think we’re on about Henry’s handball — of course he handled it — but I’d focus on why Ireland’s defenders didn’t clear it.
“I’d be more annoyed with my defenders and my goalkeeper than Thierry Henry. How can you let a ball bounce in the six-yard box? How can you let Thierry Henry get goalside of you? And as the ball bounced in the six-yard box, I’d be saying ‘where the hell’s my goalkeeper?’ “
Ireland were robbed. No doubt about it. But it happens. And as long as humans referee the sport, it will continue to happen. To allow replays of games for mistakes of judgment would set a dangerous precedent. Would players be pressured into “admitting” calls in their favor were wrong? How certain would it need to be that the botched call changed the result? (If Henry’s hand ball had been called and the game ended 1-0 for Ireland, there would have been a shootout. How can we know that Ireland would have won that.)
Soccer’s flow and its human element sets it apart from other sports. Let’s keep it that way.
(Quotes from different articles in the New York Times.)
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