France captain Thierry Henry’s infamous handball in the World Cup play-off win over Ireland will go under the microscope on Monday when FIFA’s disciplinary commission assess the incident.
Two months to the day since the Barcelona man’s controversial intervention secured the 1-1 draw that took France to South Africa and ended Ireland’s World Cup dream in the second leg of their play-off tie in Paris, Henry will face up to the possibility of a fine or even a ban.
The meeting of the 21-man disciplinary panel, an independent body chaired by the Swiss Marcel Mathier, was announced by FIFA president Sepp Blatter in Cape Town on December 2 following an extraordinary executive committee meeting.
“I had a phone conversation with Thierry Henry,” said Blatter.
“We didn’t talk about guilty or not guilty. It was a conversation between sportsmen. I didn’t say that he would be punished, I said he’d be the subject of an investigation.”
Blatter’s diplomacy can be explained by the lack of precedent regarding retrospective punishments meted out to players.
The disciplinary commission is likely to issue a symbolic penalty, as FIFA’s rules do not explicitly address incidents of such a nature and a heavy punishment would create an unwelcome precedent for world football’s governing body.
Despite the media storm that followed the match, with the goal dubbed “The Hand of Frog” in the Irish press and Irish prime minister Brian Cowen calling for a replay, Henry is likely to escape lightly.
Article 57 of FIFA’s disciplinary code concerns “anyone who insults someone in any way, especially by using offensive gestures or language, or who violates the principles of fair play or whose behaviour is unsporting in any other way” and refers to punishments ranging from warnings to the return of awards.
Blatter, meanwhile, has raised the possibility of awarding “moral compensation” to the Irish team.
“That could be a special trophy or a prize, we’ll have to see,” he said.
France were losing 1-0 to Ireland at the Stade de France on November 18, having won the first leg 1-0, when Henry teed up William Gallas for what proved to be the decisive goal after illegally controlling the ball with his hand.
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January 18, 2010
Wel what has already happened has happen, and i think their is a reversible action again the only thing i suggest is that there should a board that will incare of such an incident so that what was occured in past should not repeat itself again,we are all human being the propability is very certain to made a mistake,provided that if it is not intentional
January 18, 2010
well.. just give Henry 3 banned mach for wolrd cup..
i think that’s fir enough…
January 18, 2010
Ref’s fault, done is done, go home and forget about it
January 18, 2010
The first time he handled the ball was a “ball to hand” situation, the second was “hand to ball”. He should be punished.
January 19, 2010
I agree with gooner-11. There are 2 parties to blame here. The referee (and to some extent the linesmen)for not seeing the handball, and FIFA, for not giving the officials the proper tools i.e. instant replay of some sort to correct a wrong (missed) call. And to give the irish some sort of prize? If i were irish, I’d tell fifa to take that “prize” and stick it in their arse
January 19, 2010
yeah. the ref and fifa are to blame, but so too is henry.
January 28, 2010
You can’t punish a player for the ref not doing his job. It’s the ref/linesmen’s fault for not calling the handball, and it’s their responsibility to make sure the game is kept fair. If Henry intentionally tried a handball and got away with it, it says something about him as a player and a person, but in the end, it is not his responsibility to keep the game fair, that lies only in the hands of the referee
January 30, 2010
Punish them all, then, Bob. Henry for even daring to the hand to ball incident (after the ball to hand) the ref for allowing it, and the linesman for not seeing it.
February 5, 2010
‘hand to ball’?
no way
the ball was coming in way to fast.
havent seen it in real time, have you? read Bob’s first line again.
February 5, 2010
Seen it in real time, seen it in slow mo. Slow mo shows it all, Gooner. real time dont. the ref didnt do his job, so punish him. but also punish henry, as after the ball came in and did the ball to hand bit, he reacted and did the hand to ball bit. punish him too, especially as he slapped it across the goal mouth to a teammate to score. Almost as bad as the Hand of Maradona incident.
February 6, 2010
nope your wrong, too fast, henry has no time to consider.
February 6, 2010
maybe. . . to be frank, i dont know, i just go by what i saw. . . which is
1). ball to hand
then. . .
2). hand to ball