Football Poets

Wednesday 18th November 2009
World Cup Qualifier Playoff, 2nd leg, Paris
France 1 – 1 Ireland (aet)
France qualify 2-1 on aggregrate.

The whole Irish Nation gutted, utterly gutted.
Proud of the team for a heroic effort.

The cold hard facts though :
Ireland had enough chances in the second leg to win the game on aggregate. Football fact of life – If you don’t take your chances, you’re likely to come a cropper.

The match was heading for penalties : there’s no guarantee Ireland would have won through on those.

The winning goal – shouldn’t have stood.

If it had been correctly disallowed, there’s no guarantee that Ireland wouldn’t have conceded again and lost fairly anyway.

The referee had a great game – called some very tight decisions absolutely correctly – but he missed a crucial one. He might genuinely not have seen it – and therefor not able to give it. Fair enough. I’m not a fan of video technology, so the referee’s decision must stand. (Quite possibly the linesman could have assisted the ref better).

Thierry Henry handled the ball before laying up the assist for Gallas’s winning goal. It’s a fact. In his defence – he has publicly admitted it.

But what riles – is Henry’s assertion that it is up to the referee to spot it and to call it.

WRONG.
It’s cheating. And the whole ethos of cheating, is desecrating the Beautiful Game.

FIFA has a charter about FAIR PLAY.
It sends out children with the players at the start of most games, to help promote this charter.
This website is a strong proponent of that charter.

I hereby call on FIFA to send a message out to the cheats – ban Thierry Henry from playing football between the dates of 11th June 2010 and 11th July 2010.

That doesn’t right the possible injustice of Ireland not competing in South Africa.
But it will send a proper message to all sports cheats everywhere.

If FIFA are not prepared to publicly denounce this act of unfair play – then I call on FIFA to publicly drop the Fair Play Charter. And FIFA Statute 51.

FIFA Statute 51 :
51 Committee for Fair Play and Social Responsibility
The Committee for Fair Play and Social Responsibility shall deal with fair
play matters in football worldwide, monitor adherence to fair play as well as support and supervise the conduct of everyone involved in football.

And this from someone who previously thought that Thierry Henry walked on water.
It’s not sour grapes, it’s the straw that broke the camel’s back when it comes to cheating in football.
The cheats are making it harder and harder for the referees to do their job properly.

Introducing video technology is not an option for 99% of the world’s football matches.
Letting the cheats know that they mustn’t prosper – is the better way to go.

Yes, defeat is – fresh and raw
but cheating – cuts to the core