260: Thierry Henry, France, Topps Match Attax Trading Card Game, England Collector Binder

The history of Ireland is littered with injustices at the hands of their neighbours. The brutal campaigns of Oliver Cromwell in the 1650s. The horrors of the Great Famine in the 1840s. The suppression of the Young Ireland and Fenian movements of the nineteenth century. The executions of the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising. The horrific behaviour of the ‘Black and Tans’ in the years leading to independence. I could mention many more but perhaps this isn’t the time or place.

In 2009 the Republic of Ireland football team suffered a grave injustice, quite literally, at the hands of their neighbours to the south when they were denied a place at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Having lost the first leg of their play-off 1-0 at home the boys in green had levelled the scores on aggregate through a Robbie Keane goal and had taken the mighty France to extra-time in their own backyard. Thirteen minutes into the additional period Florent Malouda punted the ball forward in hope more than in expectation. The ball bounced ahead of Thierry Henry who controlled the ball with his hand not once but twice and squared for an onrushing William Gallas to nod in. Despite the obvious infringement the referee awarded the goal and Les Bleus were on their way to the first World Cup to be held on the African continent.

At the final whistle Henry admitted to Irish centre-half Richard Dunne that he had handled the ball in the build up to Gallas’ goal and said as much to the press in the post-match conference. However, he was clear to point out that it was not his job to stop play. That responsibility rested solely with match referee Martin Hansson who claimed that he had not seen the incident. An apoplectic Irish captain, Robbie Keane, rounded on UEFA and FIFA stating that they would be “delighted” that the star-studded French team had gone through ahead of Ireland and the FAI wrote to the game’s governing body to request a replay. A somewhat shamefaced Henry backed this appeal but the ever-respectable President of FIFA, Sepp Blatter, ignored the complaints and the result stood. Blatter went even further to rebuff critics who had suggested that goal-line and video technology would have avoided the controversy saying it was essential “to maintain the human face of football”. You sometimes forget how dismal this man was.

The Irish public understandably were not best pleased with the actions of Henry and FIFA and when the World Cup came round looked to exact their revenge. One Irish newspaper ran a campaign stating that it would release one phone number of a French footballer every time Les Bleus scored a goal in South Africa. As it happened they didn’t need to do much. A disjointed performance in a 0-0 draw with Uruguay was followed by a 2-0 loss to Mexico which included striker Nicolas Anelka unleashing a torrent of abuse towards manager Raymond Domenech resulting in his expulsion from the squad. In solidarity with Anelka many French players, including captain Patrice Evra, refused to train ahead of their final group game against South Africa and, following a 2-1 defeat to the hosts, they were dumped out of the tournament. Very few tears were shed in the Emerald Isle.

In the second round of the 2010 FIFA World Cup England’s Frank Lampard smashed a shot in off the bar against Germany only to see blank looks from the match officials. Germany ran out 4-1 winners yet, despite the fact that England were dreadful and were lucky to escape with that sympathetic a margin of defeat, the need for goal-line technology and video referees were suddenly priorities for FIFA. The former came in ahead of the next edition of the World Cup and, four years later, VAR was introduced for the 2018 tournament. By the time the World Cup in Russia had ended Sepp Blatter had been dismissed from FIFA for seemingly limitless counts of corruption and France were once again World Champions. All a bit late for the boys in green.