10,000 text Joe Duffy to express frustration

MORE than 10,000 people got busy with their thumbs to text Joe Duffy’s Liveline radio programme in frustration at the outcome of Wednesday’s fiasco in Paris.

Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the 10-minute ‘telepoll’ came back with the result that 95% of listeners wanted the France-Ireland game replayed following Thierry Henry’s admission that he handled the ball before supplying the pass that allowed William Gallas to head the winner past Shay Given.

But it wasn’t just at home that football fans and the Irish public took to airing their views on the controversy.

An online poll by top French newspaper Le Monde’s website showed a similar angry response, although the origin of the respondents was unknown. By 4pm yesterday, almost 76,000 people had answered the question: “Do Les Bleus deserve their place at the World Cup?”

An underwhelming 12% had chosen the response: “Yes, they beat them, winning their place in a tough match”, whereas 88% picked: “No, the Irish deserved it more, the referee saved the French.”

Even the Los Angeles Times got in on the act, with one of its online diarists giving readers their chance to suggest how the matter should be dealt with. Almost one-third of the 4,200-plus voters up to 4pm had opted for disqualification of the French from the World Cup, to be replaced by the Boys in Green, while 23% said the entire game should be replayed.

Just over one-in-five people took the view that the result should stand as “unfair things happen in sports”, while Henry was singled out by a similar proportion who believed he should be banned from the World Cup or else issued a post-match red card and have the game replayed from the time of the Hand of Gaul goal.

Comments were almost exclusively in favour of the Irish team, although the names of the contributors suggested they might have been watching proceedings through green-tinted glasses.

“Henry, who is supposed to be a ‘professional’ is not welcome in my country anymore ie Ireland. The fact that he handled the ball TWICE (!) and then did a lap of honour to celebrate is nothing short of a disgrace,” wrote Irishgirl.

Another poster, calling himself Seamus, wrote: “I can not believe there is a debate whether he cheated or not – Stevie Wonder could see Henry cheated.”