Only a video referee can reveal the hand of God or a French flick

DURING the recession of the 1980s sport helped to lift the public gloom, but unfortunately what happened in Paris on Wednesday night has only added to it now.

The Irish team put up a magnificent performance, as did the Irish supporters. I wonder how would English supporters have behaved in Paris if their team had been robbed in that way?

No doubt after-match incidents would have been making the news the following morning, so we can be proud of the way Irish supporters behaved. The whole thing once again demonstrates the need to introduce a video referee.

This would not delay the game unnecessarily. Each manager or captain could be given two challenges in a game, similar to the video challenges allowed in tennis. The referee should also have the right to consult the video official, as in rugby.

Thierry Henry’s initial handling of the ball was possibly a reflex action. He could have owned up. When he did not, the Irish should have been able the challenge the incident.

What happened was so clear on video that Henry should then have been booked, or even sent off. This would give players a real incentive to be more honest.

The use of the video in such circumstances could help minimise the cheating that FIFA is supposedly trying to eliminate. Its protestations about it desiring fair play are just so much nonsense in the light of what happened on Wednesday.

John Delaney certainly owed it to the Irish players and to their supporters to appeal to the French federation and even FIFA for fair play. “We got to do what we’ve got to do,” he said.

FIFA officials are unlikely to do anything, even though they did order that a 2006 World Cup qualification play-off game between Uzbekistan and Bahrain should be replayed.

In the original game, played on September 3, 2005, Uzbekistan were awarded a penalty while leading 1-0. The penalty was scored, but the Japanese referee disallowed the goal and awarded a free out because one of the Uzbek players had encroached on the penalty area before the kick was taken.

The penalty should have been taken but the referee got it wrong, so FIFA ordered that the match be replayed. Even if there is no real hope that FIFA would rule against the French, there is nothing to lose in appealing to the French sense of fair play. It is probably a futile gesture, but it is still the right thing to do for all concerned.

In an extraordinary poll in Le Monde newspaper on Thursday, 87.5% of the French respondents believed Ireland, not France, should be going to the World Cup. Is that an indication of true sportsmanship on the part of the French?

Remember also it was a Frenchman, Arsene Wenger, who agreed to replay an FA Cup match in 1999 after Arsenal won by a perfectly legal but morally dubious goal.

Sheffield United had kicked the ball out of play because a player was injured. In such circumstances it is considered the sporting thing to give the ball back to the team that kicked it out.

On this occasion, when the Arsenal player threw it towards the Sheffield United goal, the Sheffield players were expecting they were being given the ball but instead an Arsenal player scored the winning goal.

Wenger promptly offered to replay the game. The FA, and even FIFA, agreed with the replay decision. Arsenal won anyway, but in this instance soccer and sportsmanship were also the winners.

Thus there is a precedent for replaying a game even when the goal was perfectly legitimate within the rules.

The Daily Telegraph described Wenger’s gesture as “beau geste”. I certainly wouldn’t hold my breath in expectation of another beau geste from the French, but the ball has now been put at their feet. They have been asked to do the right thing.

People will probably talk about that French goal for decades because it was such a travesty. At least one French player was offside when the kick was taken and then Henry handled it not just once, but twice, within a couple of yards of the Irish goal line.

When so many Irish players protested there was a handball, maybe the referee should have asked Henry. That would have put it up to him, and he would not have been able to blame the referee afterwards.

Following the final whistle, as they were sitting on the field Henry admitted to the Irish captain he had handled the ball. “I said I handled it to Richard Dunne,” he admitted.

“I will be honest,” he told a press conference afterwards. “It was a handball.” But he excused the whole thing on the basis, “I am not the ref”.

At least he seemed to have the decency to be somewhat embarrassed. The French coach Raymond Domenech, on the other hand, seemed to be gloating. “It’s the same for everyone, these things happen sometimes,” he said. “Let me enjoy this happiness and share it with all those who are happy about the French team’s qualification.” But the French don’t think much of Domenech. “I find it hard to qualify by cheating,” the French economy minister Christine Lagarde said yeserday. She suggested FIFA should order a replay.

The most infamous handball was a goal scored by Diego Maradona against England in the quarter-final of the 1986 World Cup in Mexico city. Argentina won 2-1. Photographs clearly show Maradona scored one goal by using his hand to lift the ball over the England goalkeeper into the net. When asked afterwards, he said it was “the hand of God”.

Argentina went on to win that World Cup, and the English never forgave Maradona. Eight years later he was sent home from the World Cup in the United States in disgrace after he tested positive for a banned drug.

EAMON Dunphy contrasted soccer to the spirit in which golf is played. If someone knowingly fouled the ball and did not own up in golf, and this became apparent on television afterwards and the player then admitted he knew he had fouled the ball, he would undoubtedly be disqualified. He would also be utterly disgraced and would probably face a lengthy ban.

It is often said rugby is a game for hooligans played by gentlemen and soccer is a game for gentlemen played by hooligans. What happened in Paris has been seen around the world because the whole thing was so blatant.

It is unfair to blame the referee because he apparently did not see the incident and he had been having a good game. Insinuations that he was involved in some kind of collusion with FIFA to defeat Ireland were puerile and absurd. These only undermine the Irish case. You won’t get fair play by being unfair.

No referee is ever going to get every single thing right in a game. That is why it is important to help to ensure they get the crucial decisions as right as possible.

If nothing else comes out of the Paris fiasco, let us hope it will bring about the introduction of a video referee. This would at least help to prevent a similar outrage ever happening again.