By : Marcus Napolitano
Thierry Henry is a free man. Many fans believe Thierry Henry deserved to be penalized for his hand ball that secured a spot for France in the World Cup and sent Ireland home ending their dreams of playing in South Africa.
As much as I wanted to see the luck of the Irish pull through, I have to agree with this decision. There are several comparisons I've been discussing that make it clear for me.
Let's take Michael Jordan - If MJ traveled in a championship game and then went on to hit the game winner, would there ever be discussion of a penalty/fine for him? Absolutely not! That's what the referees are for and their job is to make the call. Maybe MJ knew he was walking, but that's not his fault.
According to FIFA's rules, they couldn't find anything that would give them a legal right to fine Henry. Basically, they agreed that a hand ball is NOT worthy of any sort of fine. The refs should face a fine before Henry should - it's their job to make the calls.
If FIFA was able to find a reason to punish Henry, it could have kept him on the sidelines during the World Cup this summer. This would have been a terrible decision. Nobody wants to see the best soccer tournament in the World with a legend on the side line (well, unless you're playing France!).
I've played in many competitive soccer games over the years at the NCAA level. There were some heart-breaking calls against my team and for my team. The only person we could blame was the ref. It's all a part of the game.
Ireland went on asking FIFA to replay the match. I knew there was no shot of this. I would have loved to see a rematch, but they can't justify missing a call to replay the match. Perhaps this will help make the push for reviews in soccer. I think that would really take away from the flow of the game and I think adding additional refs on the end-line would be a better solution.
Anyone who has ever played soccer has tried some sneaky things in a game before. Some may argue it's bad sportsmanship, but some will say it's part of the game. I can't say what Henry did was wrong since it's part of the game. I think it's unfair, but unfortunately that's part of the game!
Marcus is a huge soccer fan and enjoys playing and watching soccer on his free time. He's played competitive college ball as a goalie. Check out his reviews on the latest soccer goalie gloves at http://soccergoaliegloves.org.