Paradise Lost!

An injustice to top them all

By Mark Stokes

The Irish players were disconsolate after being denied a spot in South Africa by the hand of Thierry Henry.

YOU DID US PROUD: The Boys in Green turned in a superb performance at the Stade de France on Wednesday night. At the weekend they were still clinging to the slim hope that public opinion across the continent would sway FIFA to arrange a replay of their World Cup tie with France, even though the governing body had poured cold water on the idea. / Getty Images

The country was plunged into deepest despair this week as the Republic of Ireland team suffered through one of the biggest injustices football has ever seen - one which will be remembered as long as sport is talked about.

Feelings among Irish men and women worldwide ranged from depression to distrust to downright rage after France booked their ticket to next summer’s World Cup, thanks to a blatant ‘double handball’ from Thierry Henry.

With a superb Irish performance set to be rewarded by a penalty shootout (Robbie Keane’s first-half strike had brought the Boys in Green level on aggregate over the two-legged World Cup playoff affair), the Barcelona based ‘ambassador of football’ reached out and caught a bouncing ball which was headed out of play.

To add insult to injury the former Arsenal player then took a second touch to set himself up for a cross in front of the Irish goal, which William Gallas stabbed into an empty net.

For a split second even the French players reacted as if the offence had be penalized, but no whistle was forthcoming from Swedish referee Thomas Hansson, which unleashed pandemonium among the Irish ranks. The official could not be persuaded to retract his call and ‘Les Reprehensilbes’ marched on, singing and celebrating, to South Africa, while Ireland were forced to swallow the bitterest of bitter pills. A nation was shocked as callers jammed radio stations all day Thursday and schoolchildren cried tears in their classrooms.

In fairness to Henry he did admit the handball immediately after the game but his version - saying the ball bounced off his hand - was a major insult to the Irish people. The Barcelona striker made a pre-meditated attempt to stop the ball with his hand and then repeated the affront a second time.

Irish manager Giovanni Trapattoni labelled the incident a “great mistake” by Swedish referee Martin Hansson.

“I told the referee that it is possible to make great mistakes,” the Italian said. “It is a bitter evening.”

“All the European people saw the game and what happened. France played a good game in Dublin but this time we played better and over the two games we deserved to go to South Africa,” continued the Irish coach.

“The hand was so obvious, we're disgusted,” Robbie Keane commented after the game before aiming a broadside at football’s governing body. “FIFA absolutely did not want Ireland at the World Cup.”

And that theme was echoed by Damien Duff who claimed that sponsorship money from Addidas (the sports giant sponsors the French team) played a part in the outcome.

Clearly, whatever the shortcomings of the referee were on the night, the decision to seed the playoff draw (something which wasn’t written into the rules at the beginning of the tournament) raised the ire of the smaller nations (Ireland, Bosnia-Herzogovina, Slovenia and Ukraine).

Irish assistant manager, Liam Brady, questioned the decision by FIFA to seed the play-off draw when it looked as though established European powers France, Portugal, Germany and Russia could be involved (and in fairness to the FAI, they intimated within hours of that outlandish decision that it smacked of money and economics).

Brady claimed the decision showed an obvious desire from football’s world governing body to ensure the big names qualified, and that Swedish official Hansson felt under pressure to make that happen.

He said: “I wouldn’t blame Thierry Henry for what went on. I would maybe look at what happened three months before and the fact that these seedings for the play-offs were made to favour the bigger teams. I would ask why that went on.

“The pressure on referees is enormous then. The pressure is too much to bear and I thought the referee up until then had refereed the match in fine fashion, but he succumbed under pressure.”

Platini Implicated

Back in 1981, Michel Platini, echoed the sentiments of the then France manager, Michel Hidalgo, which claimed that if there was any justice in the world, Ireland would qualify for a major soccer tournament.

That statement followed a desperately unlucky campaign by the Boys in Green (losing out by the narrowest of margins) to the French in an effort to reach the World Cup finals in Spain, the following year.

Twenty-eight years on Platini’s words came back to haunt him as the UEFA President remained deafeningly quiet following Wednesday night’s game at the Stade de France.

And inevitably Platini’s name came into the mix once more (after the French victory) as the Frenchman was blamed, along with FIFA’s number one, Sepp Blatter, for arranging an easier passage for his compatriots in the playoffs.

But while the seeding argument will likely soon drift over the horizon, the handball incident in Paris, which is already being likened to Diego Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ goal in M