EBME Forums Forums Free discussion Out of Hours France v Ireland

Read the "Queen's Speech" (so-called) ... that will give you a few clues. It shouldn't take you too long, after all it only took Her Majesty seven minutes to wade through that [censored]!

Here is another question worth pondering. As the largest employer in Western Europe, does the NHS employ more than 250 people?

Meanwhile ... back to handball ... er, sorry, football.

I wonder if the outcry would be the same if the ball was on the other foot! so to speak. I doubt it very much!!!

Ray, I reckon the outcry would be much worse actually. Remember there are approx 57 million Frenchmen/women, but only approx 5.5 million Irish. I suppose at least they have the decency to feel embarrassed about the incident though.

However, when they (the French) feel a sense of national injustice, my goodness the whole world has to know about it. If Robbie Keane had done what Henry did , I suspect we would have the channel ports blockaded by now even though it was nothing to do with the English! But then again Robbie Keane does play for Spurs.

Can't think of one other issue in recent history that has managed to unite all the Irish and the decent minded Brits. That probably has to do with our sense of sporting 'fair play'.

Probably. But meanwhile, you have to hand it to the French, do you not?!

However...
if you look at the rules of the Beautiful Game, the referees decision (and his linesmen) is final. If neither saw the offence, then no further action can be taken.
If FIFA were to hold a post match verdict by video evidence, then it means that ALL matches would have to rely on video evidence for every disputed infringement. The delays to play would be intolerable.

If it was within my power I would 'hand' Thierry Henry a 6 match ban for ungentlemanly behaviour at the very least. See how he 'handles' that. Then he should be 'handed' over to the Irish FA for further suitable punishment. He should be 'handled' with care though as he is a temperamental Frenchman. Then again, perhaps he should just surrender himself to the Irish Authorities with a 'hands up' gesture.

Kawa,

The argument that video evidence will slow the game down is getting a bit tired. They could trial a system where they give each team 2 appeals per half like they do in tennis. Make it that the captain can appeal when there is a stoppage in play. Also have a clearly defined (limited) list of acceptable appeals. As I mentioned before use retired refs to make the call.

If there were no mistakes by the players and referee's what would all the panelists have to talk about?

The rules need to be revised to not only catch up with the 21 st. Century, but also to allow players to "self-declare" (that is, admit) fouls to the ref, even if he had failed to notice it (them).

After all, to be fair to M. Henry (am I the first?), he has to live with what happened for the rest of his "career". And I can't believe that the guy has absolutely no honour (something that the French - according to themselves, at least - usually have plenty of).

In reply to Geoff and biomedbill, the whole essence of football is that it should be fast and flowing with as little stoppage as possible.
Introducing stoppages for video evidence is a nonesense and will change the whole aspect of the game. Remember if you do it for one game, you have to do it for all!!!
With regard to "owning up" to a misdemeanor, did you hear the interview with Michael Vaughan and Matt Dawson on Radio Five Live, apparently there are misdemeanors happening all the time that are not spotted by referees and umpires!!