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‘Hand of Shame’ sparks debate on cheating, replays

LONDON — Irish soccer officials accused Thierry Henry of damaging the integrity of the game when he blatantly handled the ball to set up the goal that booked France’s place at next year’s World Cup in South Africa.

Letters were dispatched Thursday to Paris and FIFA headquarters in Zurich, while Ireland’s justice minister took to the airwaves and echoed its soccer association’s call for the contentious second-leg match to be replayed.

But the response from FIFA and the French matched that of Swedish referee Martin Hansson at the Stade de France on Wednesday night, when Irish protests against William Gallas’ winner, set up by Henry’s handball, fell on deaf ears.

FIFA simply directed journalists to its rulebook which states that results cannot be overturned after a match.

But the Irish did get the backing of the French sports teachers’ union, which said it set a poor example to children to qualify as a result of “indisputable cheating” and was “linked to a ‘very modern’ philosophy stipulating that in all areas, including sports, the end justifies the means.”

Football Association of Ireland chief executive John Delaney demanded that the game be replayed.

“I really believe the integrity of the game has been questioned last night,” Delaney said. “The governing body of world football have to step up to the plate and accede to our call for a replay.

“Every time I go to a FIFA congress I hear about fair play and integrity. This was not a league game. This was a defining game with the whole world watching.”

It was a match heading toward a penalty shootout with the aggregate score tied at 1-1 when Henry blatantly handled the ball — twice — to bring down Florent Malouda’s free kick in the 13th minute of extra time.

As Ireland goalkeeper Shay Given and his defenders reacted with fury to the blatant cheating, the Barcelona forward clipped the ball across for Gallas to knock in the goal that gave France a 2-1 aggregate win and a spot in South Africa.

“I will be honest, it was a handball. But I’m not the ref,” Henry said. “I played it. The ref allowed it.”

As Henry wheeled away to celebrate, Given led the Irish charge toward Hansson to protest. It took 97 seconds for order to be restored and the game to be restarted. Enough time, proponents of video technology argued, for replays to be quickly — and adequately — scrutinized.

Much like calls for the game to be replayed, however, video replays are off FIFA president Sepp Blatter’s agenda.

The International Football Association Board, the custodians of the laws of the game, halted all experiments with technology to assist referees in 2008, and now tests with two additional match officials behind the goals are under way.

The Irish, though, have an IFAB ally in Scottish FA chief executive Gordon Smith, who continues to push for the use of cameras to rule on disputed goals.

In the wake of Wednesday’s match, Smith wants the issue back on the agenda for the annual meeting in March.

FIFA has four votes on IFAB and four more are held by each of the associations in the United Kingdom. Motions must be approved by at least six votes.

Smith, who also sits on UEFA’s soccer committee, backs a tennis-style review system whereby each team is given two challenges per match, which if correct they retain.

“I keep on suggesting it, but no one is interested,” Smith told The Associated Press. “Wednesday night showed what’s at stake at the highest level of the game, but it could have been clarified and cleared up immediately. The game stopped anyway and they could have reviewed the evidence.”

Now, though, there should be no retrospective action, according to Smith.

“I have sympathy for the Irish, but I don’t think there is any chance of a replay,” said Smith, who played for Manchester City and Rangers in the 1970s and 80s. “It would create a dangerous precedent.”

One precedent in English soccer was set by a Frenchman — Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger — who volunteered to replay a match in England’s FA Cup after Arsenal beat Sheffield United courtesy of an unfair goal.

Arsenal scored from a throw-in after a United player had put the ball out due to a teammate’s injury.

Steve Bruce, United’s manager at the time, recalled that incident Thursday as he expressed his dismay at soccer’s failure to embrace video replays.

“Surely it is time now for technology to come into it — it took 15 seconds on the TV (on Wednesday) to establish it was blatant handball,” said Bruce, now in charge at Sunderland. “And he didn’t handball it once, but twice. It might be human error but we can change that with the technology we have got. That has got to be the way forward.”