More About France

I received a few emails with comments ranging from "check Hansson's bank account" to "there was no way Ireland was going to win" to "everyone knows there is a FIFA conspiracy to get the biggest teams into the World Cup."

Let's all take a deep breath and count back from ten.

In the previous post I brought up the Italian soccer scandal from 2006. That reference was not an incriminating of the officials in the France-Ireland game (on another note, I realize they are officially the Republic of Ireland but it's a lot to continually type). The Italy scandal did have referees who fixed games but there is no evidence as of yet proving the officials rigged the game in favor of France.

Conspiracy theories are abound after Henry's handball helped push France into the World Cup. I was sent an article by Martin Rogers of Yahoo!Sports and I though I would include a segment of the piece, including some quotes from Irish defender Richard Dunn:

Incidents such as this are part of the reason why FIFA is so often accused of favoritism toward bigger nations, who draw larger audiences and create extra revenue if they appear in major tournaments.

Time and time again, crucial calls in critical matches have gone the way of the higher-profile team. Irish defender Richard Dunne hinted at foul play.

“It was ridiculous really and unfortunately it’s what we thought was going to happen,” Dunne said. “The World Cup is run by people who want to decide who gets there. Big teams get big decisions. The referee says he was 100 percent certain that Henry didn’t handball it but Henry said to me that he did.

“It’s not a difficult one to see. The linesman was in line with it. We deserved to win. We could have got a couple of goals but theirs knocked the stuffing out of us.”

Everybody on the Irish national team has a reason to be angry this morning. It is a dream of many soccer players to be in the World Cup and to play for your country. Since the tournament is every four years, it makes a knockout that much more painful. For an older soccer player, it could represent the last real chance he had of competing in a World Cup. Being engulfed in the emotion of it all makes comments like "the linesman was in line with it" pliable. Missed calls do happen in sports, whether you're 10 yards away or in line with the play. Sometimes being too close can negatively affect the final judgment since you cannot see the entire play/person.

It is very difficult however to jump to the conclusion of a fixed match without any evidence. I think Martin Rogers does FIFA a disservice by giving this theory attention. England missed the 1994 World Cup despite being a very popular draw and having the Barclays Premiership, arguably the most prestigious soccer league in the world. Fuck, three African teams made it that year (Nigeria, Morocco and Cameroon) while England and France were at home. France didn't make it in 1990 as well and Mexico was disqualified that year. Mexico hosted the 1986 World Cup and made it to the Quarterfinals. In 1994, Mexico advanced past the group stage where the lost in the Round of 16 to Bulgaria of all fucking nations. Bulgaria then turned around and made it all the way to the third place match. The third place match in 2002 was Turkey versus Korea Republic, neither are considered high profile teams and Korea had to beat Spain to make it to the Semi-finals.

Argentina is a hugely popular and successful soccer nation. Everyone who knows soccer has heard the legends or seen the abilities of coke head and current shell of himself, Diego Maradona. They've produced some of the worlds best players (Batistuta, Messi, Riquelme, Crespo, Zanetti, Kempes blah blah we can go on and on). Argentina is certainly a more popular soccer nation, arguably a better team and has more individual talent and world wide appeal than Croatia and Turkey and Sweden and Bulgaria and Korea and yet all of them have advanced further than Argentina over the last four World Cups. And despite being considered one of the favorites in virtually all of those years, Argentina hasn't had a real successful World Cup, by their standards, since it appeared in the 1990 Championship Game.

I mean fucking hell in a jar, Greece...GREECE won the Goddamn 2004 UEFA European Football Championship. A tournament that many consider more difficult to win than the World Cup (every World Cup there are some shitty teams that only made it because there is no outstanding soccer nation in their area or because they are hosting. I'm looking at you in 2010 Korea DPR, New Zealand and South Africa).

These are only a few examples. Obviously we can look at every World Cup or national tournament and every match that Germany or Italy or Brasil competed in and find games where one or two questionable calls went their way and the more popular team/bigger nation advanced. Money has always been the bottom line and if you are going to cry about bigger nations being in tournaments you need to follow that thought through. If revenue dictates how a team does, or "helps" a team, then none of the above examples would have happened. There have been major soccer powers who failed to make past World Cups. There have been major soccer powers who were beaten by less popular opponents in major tournaments.

I wish that whenever there was a blown call in sports the reaction would be more tepid. I'm thinking "wow that sucks" instead of "this is proof the establishment hates my team/nation and there is a huge conspiracy to prevent them from winning because of [insert conspiracy theory]."

If there is proof the refs were bought off or FIFA helped France win in any way, I will happily admit I was 100% wrong but I truly believe there was no favoritism or conspiracy. To accuse or even insinuate that FIFA was unjust in this situation and is wronger than wrong.

Hand Of A God I Don't Believe In

Few things excite me more in sports than the World Cup. Few things irritate me more than France. Not necessarily the nation of France, but their soccer team. Maybe it was the meteoric rise from France not qualifying in 1990 and 1994, then winning it all in 1998 on French soil in the biggest French circle jerk since Louis XVI was given his ticket to Guillotineville. This was followed by a historically embarrassing 2002 where France did not score a single goal in three fucking games. I did softly root for France in 2006 amid the Italian soccer scandal where its top players were permitted to compete. It just struck me in poor taste that a nation has it top clubs involved in a match fixing scandal and that country was then allowed to play in the World Cup, something that should be the highest honor and privilege for an soccer team. To think Italy would pull itself out is an absurd thought, no nation would. I just felt there should be some worldly repercussions. Naturally, thanks to a Zidane head butt, Italy prevailed, making me dislike those French fucks even more.

So France and I get along as well as Ann Coulter would at a 9/11 widows convention.

You can imagine how happy I was when I saw this:

France Makes World Cup Despite Henry Controversy

SAINT-DENIS, France (AP) -- France qualified for its fourth consecutive World Cup when officials missed an obvious hand ball by Thierry Henry that led to William Gallas' overtime goal in a 1-1 tie against Ireland on Wednesday night.

Every official at that game should be forced to swim from the Strait of Gibraltar to Costa Rica as punishment.

With help from Swedish referee Martin Hansson, who failed to call the hand ball, France avoided a penalty-kicks shootout and won the home-and-home, total-goals playoff 2-1. The French had come away with a 1-0 victory in Dublin last Saturday.

Assuming he's not lying, Hansson says he missed the call. Instant replay sometimes gets a bad rep (see SEC football, 2009) and many of the arguments about slowing the game down I think are exaggerated, although those arguments are stronger in soccer where constant stoppages would disrupt match continuity. It may add a few minutes max, but we have the technology to get call correct which should be the main objective, particularly in a game altering call. Maybe we have in some sports selective replay (whether 1-2 coaches challenges, officials from upstairs) but to allow a blatant hand ball like above go uncorrected is ridiculous. In all fairness, I can't blame Hansson because he is human and may have not seen the handball. It happens. But we have the capabilities to fix those calls.

The game appeared headed to penalty kicks when Florent Malouda sent a free kick to Henry at the post to the right of goalkeeper Shay Given in the 103rd minute. Henry got between defender Paul McShane and Given, stopped the ball with his left hand, then used his hand again and poked the ball with his outstretched right foot in front of the net.

Henry is a dirty dirty cheat. Ireland did have some chances (Lloris made two tremendous saves) but to have a game basically end on a handball was ludicrous.

"He almost caught it and walked into the net with it," said Robbie Keane, who had put the Irish ahead in the 33rd minute.

Robbie I don't think I can be anywhere as pissed as you, seeing as you just lost a chance to play in the World Cup, but this is a stretch. If Henry pulled a rugbyesqe moved, caught the ball and walked into the net, I'm fairly certain the goal would have been disallowed.

Gallas headed the ball into the net from about 1 yard as Irish players raised their hands in protest at Hansson.

Ireland should invade France. I don't think starting a war over this is extreme in any way.

Soccer does not allow officials to use video replay, although the assistant referees can point out infractions to the referee.

Soccer should have some sort of video replay.

"I will be honest, it was a hand ball. But I'm not the ref," Henry said. "I played it. The ref allowed it. That's a question you should ask him."

Henry is a goober. I hope while shaving his genitalia he cuts his dick off with a Gillette razor.

Gallas hardly knew what happened.

"It went so fast. I saw Thierry's pass. The Irish were surprised, and I put my head, my chest," he said as his voice trailed off.

They were surprised because Herny thought he was playing beach volleyball for a moment.

Ireland coach Giovanni Trapattoni was livid and had to be calmed by officials. Irish fans - about 8,000 in one section behind the goal - chanted "Cheat! Cheat!" at Henry.

I love this. The official blow a call that could potentially send Ireland to the World Cup and their response is to try and calm the coach down. He has every right to blow a gasket.

"I'm not only disappointed tonight, I'm also very sad," Trapattoni said. "The referee should have asked Henry, I'm sure he would have admitted there was a hand ball."

Does this happen in sports? It seems like a sportsmanlike thing to do, but how often do refs approach players and ask them to admit something like a handball? I know Christy Mathewson did it back in 1905 but but I cannot recall too many examples of officials walking up to players and players confessing "I screwed up. Please disallow the goal/touchdown/homerun" etc. If he was so inclined he could have taken the initiative and confessed what occurred. He chose to shut his mouth and play in the World Cup.

Added Keane:

"When you see the reaction of Shay, he's two yards away from it. You don't get a reaction like that (otherwise).

Very true. He was pretty animated. However you can't base it off of a person's reaction. Talk about opening Pandora's Box and taking a shit inside. If the ref missed it, he missed it.

"He's an absolutely top player and has been for a long time, but it was a clear hand ball. He actually dragged it in from going out. I wouldn't expect it from anybody."

The dude did stop it with his hand. It wasn't a momentary thing. I don't know how one of the top players in the world does that.

At the final whistle, Given collapsed and lay on the ground in dejection for several minutes as France celebrated. Gallas jumped into coach Raymond Domenech's arms.

You can't even imagine how much I want France to lose.

"It was difficult, arduous and sometimes miraculous," Domenech said. "It was a victory by the skin of our teeth."

Oh fuck you man. It was a fucking hand ball. Nothing Miraculous about that. It was a victory by hand ball. Will somebody please kick Domenech in the balls for me?

Domenech felt it was a shame that Ireland didn't qualify, as well.

"I want to congratulate the Irish players for this battle," he said. "They gave us a very hard time."

And they lost because of a hand ball.

"We suffered for two years. We have been having some problems with our press, our fans, with other people," Henry said. "It would have been better to do it in another way, but as I said, I'm not the ref."

Ireland has missed the last two World Cups. I bet they are suffering too. Also, in case you weren't' aware, they lost because of a hand ball by you. The reason you have had problems with the press and fans is because you haven't been playing up to the expectations they set. You're still going to be a dangerous team in the World Cup because quite frankly about a third of the teams are not as talented as you (like Nigeria and Japan and the Koreas and New Zealand and Switzerland and Algeria and Honduras) but I pray you get a draw with England, Brasil and Holland.