Somnopolis

Maybe you didn’t hear, but there was a football game the other night. France versus Ireland for a place on the ticket at the South Africa World Cup in 2010. France won.

Oh did you hear different? Well there was the little matter of Captain Thierry Henry handling the ball before passing to fellow player Gallas, who scored the deciding goal in extra time.

I wasn’t able to watch the game on the night and so was following the updates on Twitter.  Tweets such as “#Ireland #Ireland #Ireland #Ireland”, ensured that the game trended above the usual topics of pale vampires and abstinence. It all seemed to be going well, but then after refreshing the search topic close to the end the tone took a dramatic dip. “Fuck”; “Thierry you cheat! #France #Ireland”; “Hand of Frog!”

That last one appeared as a tabloid headline. Gosh Rupert Murdoch is a man of principle when it comes to sourcing online content, isn’t he?

So much anger, which still hasn’t abated. To play devil’s advocate though, many of the complaints regarding the linesmen and referee passing the illegal cross to Gallas ignore the fact that an Irish player also handled the ball in the game against Georgia (although it is widely judged that the Irish were the better team on the night).

Following the calls for a rematch, the Irish Football Association released the following statement to FIFA:

“There is precedent for the invalidation of such results. In 2005 the bureau of the FIFA World Cup organising committee reached a decision to invalidate the result of a World Cup qualification match between Uzbekistan and Bahrain on the basis of a ‘technical error by the referee’…The Football Association of Ireland is hoping FIFA and its disciplinary committee will, on behalf of football fans worldwide, act in a similar fashion so the standards of fair play and integrity can be protected.”

This is highly unlikely though, as FIFA and the Irish manager Trapattoni have commented that the decision was made to allow the goal by match officials on the night and that’s that.

Or is it!

Here comes the Irish government to the rescue:

“Thierry Henry has admitted handling the ball, claims he told the ref he handled it…..Millions of people worldwide saw it was a blatant double handball – not to mention a double offside – and we should put the powers that be in the cosy world of FIFA on the spot and demand a replay”.

Yes ‘passionate soccer fan’, Justice Minister Dermot Ahern taking time out from his busy schedule enforcing blasphemy laws to comment on the football. What about Taoiseach Brian Cowen? Well he took time out from an EU summit in Brussels to discuss the matter with President Sarkozy.

Ladies and gents we should be grateful, really, that our leaders are so concerned over the football results. As Minister Ahern has said It’s the least we owe the thousands of devastated young fans around the country. Otherwise, if that result remains, it reinforces the view that if you cheat, you will win.

Yes Minister, but where do your principles come into play as regards the banking class which have ‘cheated’, and robbed the Irish people, rendered private pension funds a joke? Where is your anger over the debt handed to the Irish people as a whole with NAMA? Or the fate of the young people who have no future in this country and are being forced to emigrate abroad to find work? Why does your government victimise the public service and levy their pensions, dock their pay and freeze out graduates from entry?

Oh fine, continue with the Frog bashing. Nice to have something safe to get angry about isn’t it?