Henry's Hands and the Cult of Victimisation

Relax, I'm not going to say he didn't handle it or that Ireland can't feel aggrieved or that the better team won. 

France is through to the World Cup Finals only by virtue of a goal that should never have stood. That it did is a tragedy for Irish football fans and an enormous cake of luck for the French national team. 

Disappointment is a horrible side affect of being a football supporter. We do not need to feel as passionately as we do and yet, when the inevitable lows come, we allow them to twist us up as if it weren't only a game. I want to call myself stupid for getting so upset but you never do, partly because you know you love it really and partly because you've already chosen someone to be your scapegoat - historically Bentley, Eboue, Robbie Savage etc.

Thierry Henry is not one of the usual suspects. However, today he is an internationally renowned cheat of the most despicable order. Really?

I will cut to the chase and make my point. Today I read a comment on the Sky Sports article that has now been snowed under by thousands of other comments that went something like this:

"Thierry has always been an inspiration... blah blah... when he was at Arsenal... blah blah... greatest... blah... but after last night... never forgive... cheat... my seven year old son even said 'Look daddy, look at his big cheaty face. What a cheat daddy! Let's kill him daddy. I want to see the cheat dead, daddy.'... to provoke that reaction from a child, a child!... So I'm starting a militia with the sole aim of killing Thierry Henry, the greatest cheat of all time."

Okay, I did make the end of that up but it was an outrageously outraged comment, with all its anger and frustration directed straight at Henry and it did mention the commenter's son to compound his guilt. He had been found guilty by the fairest jury known to man: a seven year old boy. How could he be wrong?!

Let's quickly dissect the incident: Ball comes in, defender misses it, Henry moves to it, moves his hand first, ball and hand meet, ball arrives nicely at Henry's feet, whip, bang!

Now, I'm not going to argue that Henry did not do it intentionally. However, I know that he did not think: "Ooh, if I catch this and throw it at Gallas's head, we will be off to the World Cup. I'm so clever."

In the moment, his arm shot out, for whatever reason, and he was able to set up a goal. The referee missed it. That's the referee's fault. Look at Henry's track record: never a dive, never a fight, never an abnormal ban. He is not a "cheat". He fouled. Making a bad challenge is technically cheating but we don't call it that - we call it a foul. If the referee missed a foul we blame him, not the player for playing to the whistle.

A criticism of this article may be that it was not honorable for him to just wheel away and celebrate amongst the Irish players. He should have admitted it or at least looked apologetic. Maybe you're made of better stuff than I am but I would have been ecstatic and buzzing with adrenaline. I wouldn't have a second thought for trying to convince the ref that the goal should be scrapped. The apology can come later.

Many have compared it to Maradona's hand of God. Some have said it will tarnish Henry's reputation like Zidane's headbutt. Nonsense. Neither bear comparison.

It's happened. Henry does not deny he handled: he said that it should not have stood because it was a handball, but he did not mean to deceive anybody. It's worth just taking him at his word - why disbelieve him just so you can feel angry? Also, don't blame the ref, he didn't do it, he just didn't see it and, however upsetting or consequential that aberration was, the defender was probably in the way.

Utterly gutting but I'm afraid it just needs to be stuck in the bin labeled "Football, bloody hell."