World Cup - Henry: Replay fairest solution
France captain Thierry Henry has admitted the Republic of Ireland deserve to have qualified for the World Cup finals and that the fairest solution would be to replay their controversial play-off.
Henry's double handball in the build up to William Gallas's equaliser saw Les Bleus win through to next summer's tournament 2-1 on aggregate.
The incident has caused uproar in the footballing world and led to accusations that Henry's perceived 'cheating' has damaged the image of the game.
Calls from the Irish camp for a replay have fallen on deaf ears at FIFA, but Henry claims that he is in favour of a rematch.
"Naturally I feel embarrassed at the way that we won and feel extremely sorry for the Irish who definitely deserve to be in South Africa," said Henry.
"Of course the fairest solution would be to replay the game but it is not in my control.
"I have said at the time and I will say again that yes I handled the ball. I am not a cheat and never have been.
"It was an instinctive reaction to a ball that was coming extremely fast in a crowded penalty area.
"As a footballer you do not have the luxury of the television to slow the pace of the ball down 100 times to be able to make a conscious decision.
"People are viewing a slow motion version of what happened and not what I or any other footballer faces in the game.
"If people look at it in full speed you will see that it was an instinctive reaction.
"It is impossible to be anything other than that. I have never denied that the ball was controlled with my hand. I told the Irish players, the referee and the media this after the game.
"There is little more I can do apart from admit that the ball had contact with my hand leading up to our equalising goal and I feel very sorry for the Irish."
In a statement on the FAI website, Repubic of Ireland captain Robbie Keane welcomed Henry's comments and called upon the French Football Federation to grant both skippers' requests for the match to be replayed.
"On behalf of the Republic of Ireland players, I would like to thank Thierry Henry for his statement this afternoon (Friday) that in his opinion a replay would be the fairest option," Keane said.
"As captain of the French team, to make such a statement took courage and honour, and all of us recognise 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."
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i have to agree with joe on this one...
jgibb82
I dont know if you've noticed this but this whole ireland france thing isnt all over the irish news like you all like to think it is. we have moved on, no there wont be a replay but cheaters will not get away with making a fool of the footballing community unless we let them! a replay is not talked about, hasnt been for afew days now, ALL THE TALK IS ABOUT CHANGING FOOTBALL SO ITS BETTER FOR EVERYONE, if you wana sit back in scotland (or england or wherever you are, dont really care where your from) and not be apart of the cause then the small teams like ireland and scotland will continue to be cheated......... so get over the whole "irish are throwing their toys out of their pram"! as i said, its not all over the irish media, its on bbc, sky, eurosport and other continental media sources (PLEASE NOTE, NOT THE IRISH MEDIA). and its people like you who ARE NOT IN IRELAND, BUT STILL TALKING ABOUT THIS, KEEPING THE TOPIC ALIVE!! maybe if the scottish put as much effort into their campaign like the irish team did then it could of been you cheated out of a massive possibility of playing in the world cup.
awwww joe joe joe now if ur goin to call people out on here at least pretend to know what ur talking about iv got 3 things tht i will say to u
1. i'm not english i'm a scot !!!!
2. i havent played football at every level i was referring to a previous post by sum1 who said they had !!!!
3. and did u actually watch the ireland/georgia match wen ur team get 1 of the softest penaltys iv ever seen
i didnt see ireland fans fall over themselves to give the goal back so just accept it and move on like any normal /sane supporter is meant to do !!!!!
and as for Henry please note that he came out and said that it should be a replay after Fifa came out and said that there will be no replay a 100%. why didnt he say it before Fifa and just after the match dont be fooled he was told to say it because the French FA knew a 100% that fifa would not give a replay.
people yous can argue about hundreds of games about teams cheating. But the fact is FIFA has the chance to change to the way football is today full of cheats and con men. FIFA so call tell teams around the world to show fair play and sportsmanship well FIFA and the French FA have not shown this its a black week for football and it does not look like FIFA will ban or fine Henry or the ref or the lines man in fact FIFA will most likely welcome all three to South Africa next year. If FIFA dont take actions on all three men and dont take action on putting video replays into force into all football games what message are sending out to young kids that it is ok to cheat. I certainly will not surrport football if it continues to be full of cheats and con men and is purely football is just a business out to make a profit and FIFA have proven this by seeding the draw and not being fair and will not use video replay because it stops cheats and con men from giving FIFA a profit if people want to keep surrpoting football thats fine but i will not if football continues the way its going.
the algerians have used terror against the egyptians in the game in sudan they insulted egyptians in every way they attacked them with knives and swords after the algerians won the match its unbelievable the sudanese protected the egyptian they opened their houses to the egyptian supporters and many of them r injured now ! now we r thanking god that we lost the match bec it would have been a massacre if we have won ! we r not asking replaying the match we just want the algerians to punished by the fifa association bec our dignity is badly hurt ! im sry to write here i just wanted to let many people know and also im afraid if the algerian qualify in the world cup the same thing will happen there against the supporters of another team
what are all you idiots talking about? did you not see what happened in that game?? if you dont call for a replay then you wont get it, hell, even if you do ask you wont get it. and to that T.W.A.T. who claims he has played football at every level ((jgibb82)). YOUR TALKING UTTER CRAP! if it was france and england there would have been riots after that match so dont talk crap about the irish throwing their toys out of their prams, give them an inch..... utter crap! sky and the bbc would be all over it and the news papers would be writing about it for 20 odd years just like the hand of god goal, so dont come on here writing about how the irish are blowing things out of proportion. a case of the pot calling the kettle black....
Is it me or have the Irish gone back to the 60s and 70s when they were considered to be thick? Playing thick for the media wont get you anywhere nor will you get sympathy. Grow up, accept it take shrug it off and come back again. Love the speeches by the fans reported in the news, how pathetically comical. If you had an ounce of decency you would not be begging to replay the game on the grounds the ref never saw a hand ball. I mean if your players never cheated then you would have the right to feel cheated and bleat on about it. But the we all know thats no so!
Remember the irish victory over Slovenia...
At least henry has class because he admits his mistake and is ok for the replay. On the other hand, did anyone of you hear any irishman, any player or any FAI ask for the match against georgia to be replayed?
If this happened to England, the Irish would be cheering, get over it you wern't good enough.
The rules are all out there. In a match, referee's decision will be final. If he was not in the line of view when an infringement occurred and he did not blow his whistle, he cannot be faulted. Thierry's foul was obviously not spotted by match officials and the goal stood. No need to demonise the French captain because if you did then you would have to do that to the hundreds of players around the world who do 'cheat'. The Irish players did not say anything about the penalty against Georgia. Should they have owned up and said 'hi ref, no penalty'. Why should one expect Thierry to do so. Its all in the game. Get over and move on.
if a defender handled the ball when it was going through to a forward he would have been red carded, but a forward can stop the ball with his hand control it with his hand and set up a goal and still play in the next game, seems strange to me, prepare yourselves for the worst world cup in history.
how fifa allows someone to cheat and get away with it! well see such cases increasing as there is tolerance for cheating! no personal ethics and no rules, it is FOOTBALL OF THE JUNGLE!!!!!!!! why other sports are improving regulations while football going down???? 20 years from now, the football industry will lose ground to other more ethical sport and fifa needs wiser leadership. blater and platini are al capon of football, killing the game!!
Listen wake up and smell the roses.When will us football fans learn its all about one big thin.MONEY MONEY MONEY.FIFA are cheats.
Yes charles o ur acting like a right arshhole.
haha. he knows that they won't replay the game, that's why he is saying this stuff now to make him look like the nice guy. Ireland are @#$% anyway, and didn't belong in the world cup finals. Leave that for the big boys.
+ Mr, Andy "i hav played football at every level " if u dont try and give your team every advantage u can to win then that is cheating those fans who come to support said teams so dont give is yir pish ya sweaty bawbag lol
ever heard thev saying "dangling carrots on the end of strings "
this article does that to all ( Irish/celtic ) fans give theez fukkers an inch they will take a mile and then if they dont get their way its a false start and they are hard done by lol and every1 shud jus give in to their ( conspiracy theories/blatant lies/middle child syndrome ) nonsense they jus cant help feeling hard done by and THAT IS EVERYONE ELSES FAULT APART FROM THEIR OWN !!!
P.S throwing s.h.i.t on walls lololol typical tims
Some of you guys make it sound like handballs never happen or something. As if a handball happened and it wasn't ever not called for it. Things happen, it's life for sakes. Ireland didn't make it and it sucks for them. Blaming this on Henry is the dumbest thing I've ever seen. It's so immature as if you, you people were little children fighting and saying who started it first. Grow up, nobody is going to even remember this in a month and the World Cup will start and it won't even matter. Blaming never ever changed a single thing in history.
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