8 Captains Blog

Is it just me? Or has everyone gone mad in the world of football since the “Le Hand of God” Thierry Henry incident!

I mean think about it, yes there is an injustice here and yes Ireland are right to be angry and upset, but at the same time could you really expect Thierry Henry to stop his actions in mid play, run over to the referee and say “Bonjour monsieur I am very sorry but I seemed to have handled the ball” Give me a break!

And as for replaying the game, that is just ludicrous. How about Ireland go back and discuss how they only scored one out five clear chances they had and how if they had been more clinical in front of goal this whole handball fiasco would not be an issue.

Whilst I sympathise with Ireland and don’t for one condone what Henry did, I still believe it is part of the beauty of football, you win some you lose some, this just happened to be worth a few million Euro’s.

I tell you what though, the officials and in particular the linesman have got off fairly lightly, I have heard a few moans and groans and quite rightly they will be banned from officiating high profile games, but come on!!! the linesman must have been Mr Magoo, Stevie Wonder or David Blunkett to not have seen the second handball (the one in which Henry caught it, bounced it a few times, stuck it up his shirt and then threw it Gallas…over exaggeration?)

Surely the linesman should be demoted to say bog-wash boy in an afghan prison (is that too harsh?), I cannot believe he did not see it. After all this I believe Blatter and Platini will be loving it and we will soon have 47 referees at each end of the pitch, 4 in the middle and 300 hundred down the sidelines or even worse one per player, it will be like a buddy system, or something similar to the UEFA Cup system in place now.

Anyway I am ranting on a bit, but I think what I am trying to say is that this is just another reason why football is loved around the world, it provides so many talking points, so many heartbreaking situations (especially if you are an England fan) and so many euphoric moments. Football doesn’t need to become robotic like other sports, before you know it their will be more randomness in FIFA 2010 than there is in a Premier League Match.

I think that whilst goal line video evidence should be brought in, I don’t think we should get too hung up on handballs, and diving. Punish the player (3 game ban, fine maybe even season long ban etc) but not replay the game! Imagine it, every contentious decision looked at by a panel of old fuddy duddies round a table, then a week later the game is replayed, it’s not going to work, we will be playing never ending seasons of football. Football needs to consider the direction it is heading.

Finally answer me this, would you have not handled the ball there? Would you have told the referee like a good citizen? (I think I know the answer to 99% of you).

Anyway just to remind people of an even more outrageous handball here is our pal Maradona.