World Cup Play-Offs

[Thaumagurist*]

Even after his comedy dive against Spain in WC2006 that lead to a goal?

Exactly, what a crock of shit when people claim Henry's always been a fair player, when he's really a dirty cheating oxf*rd.

I'm racking my brains and I can't think of what happened with that incident and anyway, one incident in, what, 8 years in English football? The man was so good he didn't need to cheat.

He dived to win a free kick that led to their winning goal. You can find it on youtube, just search for "Henry cheating". I'm sure there has been more than one incident where he's got away with cheating. He's no gentleman.

[Thaumagurist*]

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[Sun Tzu]

What have they done that they've gotten away with in a game of this magnitude though?

In Keane's case, not so much the magnitude of the game, more the magnitude of the incident (Alfe Inge Haaland springs to mind). Beckham's sending off against Argentina. Gerrard being, well, Gerrard.

They all ended up paying for it then, didn't they? Henry hasn't. That was my thinking anyway.

But all he did was handle the ball. It happens all the time. Why pick him out for post match punishment but not all the dozens of other players who commit offences that the referee doesn't pick up on ?

People ask for consistency from officials then want to make special cases of something just because it was in a high profile game. That makes no sense.

[Sarah Star]

Because of the evidence. We saw him do it on the tv replays and he says he did it.

Take the punishment, then his reputation is intact, the cheating is punished and everything is seen to be fair... or as fair as it can be.

[Thaumagurist*]

But all he did was handle the ball. It happens all the time. Why pick him out for post match punishment but not all the dozens of other players who commit offences that the referee doesn't pick up on ?

Makes a mockery of this. http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/worldwide ... index.html

[M-U-R-T-Y]

Personally I think Henry has handled the situation very well.

[Sun Tzu]

Because of the evidence. We saw him do it on the tv replays and he says he did it.

Take the punishment, then his reputation is intact, the cheating is punished and everything is seen to be fair... or as fair as it can be.

And you then analyse every game and retrospectively punish every player who commits an offence that is not punished by the referee ?

Punishing Henry now wouldn't make anything 'fair', Ireland would still not be going to S Africa (which is the only unfairness involved).

Henry would still be remembered by some as the person who 'cheated' Ireland out of their place

[Compo's Hat]

If anyone should be punished it should be Anelka for his obvious dive, how the lino didn't decide on anything is beyond me!

[Sun Tzu]

But all he did was handle the ball. It happens all the time. Why pick him out for post match punishment but not all the dozens of other players who commit offences that the referee doesn't pick up on ?

Makes a mockery of this. http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/worldwide ... index.html

In the same way as the behaviour of players does every week.

And Henry's action is way, way behind that of players who scream obscenities into TV cameras, who pick fights with groundstaff, who deliberately injure opponents, who attempt to intimidate referees, who feign injury in an attempt to get opponents sent off.....

[Ginger Ninjas]

I'm racking my brains and I can't think of what happened with that incident and anyway, one incident in, what, 8 years in English football? The man was so good he didn't need to cheat.

Two minutes on youtube generates the following...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ym-Hyr3EsWw - the Spain one, some contact not anywhere near his face - France score from free-kick

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSZE7h5gyto&feature=related - in the Premier League

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jI3uOFu8-WM&feature=related - against Portugal in the Euros

Now, I'm not trying to vilify Henry, who was/is clearly a great player and one of the best foreign imports to the PL, but this is not the first example of him cheating in games.

[Sun Tzu]

If anyone should be punished it should be Anelka for his obvious dive, how the lino didn't decide on anything is beyond me!

What did Anelka do after the 'foul' ? I can't recall.

I tend to think it is not whether a forward goes down that is the issue but whether they then turn to the ref and try and claim a foul (like Robbie keane does....).

It's not an offence to dive over a keeper if he slides in at your feet, if a player goes down but then makes no attempt to suggest to the ref he was fouled i'm not sure it is an issue. it is the flamboyent fall followed by the theatrical appeal that is the problem IMHO !

[papereyes]

Do you realise, Kes, that we also have fought France at some point in our history?

In World War II as well.

Much to Churchill's delight, it must be added.

[Millsy]

Thatcher was right when she said most of our problems have come from mainland Europe.

And it's also right to say that most cheats or managers who teach our boys to cheat come from mainland Europe.

Which European would do what Robbie Fowler did?

Keep football tidy. Keep football British.

And as for there STILL being no video replay evidence, well no wonder the Europeans on the relevant councils are against it.

WAKE UP FOOTBALL, WE ARE NOT LIVING IN THE DARK AGES ANYMORE FFS.

My heart goes out to our Irish brothers.

[Alan Partridge]

time to change the avataROFL.

IreLOLand.

Who wants this one?

LOL!

LOLoveLOLy stuff.

Absolutely genius that Spacey was on the IreLOLand bandwagon and Henry put them out

Murked.

France and england will send the Irish postcards from South Africa. 'Irish you were here'

[Sun Tzu]

Thatcher was right when she said most of our problems have come from mainland Europe.

And it's also right to say that most cheats or managers who teach our boys to cheat come from mainland Europe.

Which European would do what Robbie Fowler did?

Keep football tidy. Keep football British.

And as for there STILL being no video replay evidence, well no wonder the Europeans on the relevant councils are against it.

WAKE UP FOOTBALL, WE ARE NOT LIVING IN THE DARK AGES ANYMORE FFS.

My heart goes out to our Irish brothers.

If only the Home Nations didn;t make up 50% of the IFAB !!

[floyd__streete]

LOL@ all the Henry slating. He doesn't care what any of you or other british or Irish fans think of him - he's off to SA in the summer eating croissants and toast with jam. He'll be relaxing in one of jo'burgs finest saunas too.

I feel sorry for the Irish and i was supporting them, but comments on here are laughable - oh how the Irish laughed when maradonna did worse to England.

It's all black and white with you isn't it, Finers . Tbh, I would have been annoyed by that goal if it had eliminated, I dunno, Austria. I couldn't really give a monkeys about Ireland either way in all honesty. It was cheating, it shouldn't have counted and Henry should be banned from the World Cup. You'd have spat the dummy if Celtic had scored a goal like that against your beloved Rangers.

[papereyes]

I'd have been less annoyed had I not been watching it in an Irish social club, under the steady burning glare of the pope.

[Thaumagurist*]

Thatcher was right when she said most of our problems have come from mainland Europe.

And it's also right to say that most cheats or managers who teach our boys to cheat come from mainland Europe.

Which European would do what Robbie Fowler did?

Keep football tidy. Keep football British.

And as for there STILL being no video replay evidence, well no wonder the Europeans on the relevant councils are against it.

WAKE UP FOOTBALL, WE ARE NOT LIVING IN THE DARK AGES ANYMORE FFS.

My heart goes out to our Irish brothers.

I like this. Not quite sure about the last three words of your post though.

[cmonurz]

No. The player may be banned or fined, although I'm not sure if there's a precedent for a deliberate handball incident. The game will not be replayed as it totally negates the other 120 minutes of play, and punishes the 13 other French players who also played a significant part in the game. There is also the issue of when it could be played.

It was a yellow card offence so hard to see how he can be fined or banned.

And if he was then Robbie Keane would be too given he was penalised 3 times for handball in the game ....

Diving is a yellow card offence too, but Eduardo was initially banned for 2 games for his dive (although subsequently overturned, I'm not sure on what basis). The Eduardo incident has certainly opened the can of worms, as far as retrospective punishment goes.

[Compo's Hat]

If anyone should be punished it should be Anelka for his obvious dive, how the lino didn't decide on anything is beyond me!

What did Anelka do after the 'foul' ? I can't recall.

I tend to think it is not whether a forward goes down that is the issue but whether they then turn to the ref and try and claim a foul (like Robbie keane does....).

It's not an offence to dive over a keeper if he slides in at your feet, if a player goes down but then makes no attempt to suggest to the ref he was fouled i'm not sure it is an issue. it is the flamboyent fall followed by the theatrical appeal that is the problem IMHO !

It was the way he tried to stretch his leg out to try and catch the keeper that got my goat. UEFA can easily go and look at the replay of that and see it was a deliberate attempt to con the ref (something to which you couldn't say about Henry) and ban him.