France and Ireland: Foul play at the World Cup

last updated 8 January 2015

France is trying to deflect accusations that it cheated its way into the World Cup finals, said Bruno Lesprit in Le Monde. At a game between France and Ireland last week, French captain Thierry Henry committed a blatant foul, hitting the ball with his hand toward a teammate, who then scored the winning goal. Everyone saw Henry’s hand—everyone, that is, except the referee, who ruled the goal legal. Ireland has now been eliminated, and “the travesty has destroyed the reputation of Les Bleus,” the French team, which is being condemned in the European press as craven and dishonorable. “The whole world saw you cheat, Thierry!” screamed a headline in the London Sun. Somebody even hacked Henry’s Wikipedia entry to read “Thierry Henry is a French volleyball player.” French politicians are now weighing in, with almost all of them saying they are “deeply embarrassed.”

Then they should make their team forfeit the win, said the Irish Independent in an editorial. FIFA, the international soccer body, refuses to order a rematch, even though Henry has admitted that his hand touched the ball and agrees that a rematch would be “the fairest option.” FIFA claims that it would be unprecedented to replay a match, and that bad calls are simply part of the game. But what’s truly unprecedented is the boldness of Henry’s “cheating” in such a high-stakes game. It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that FIFA simply wanted “big money-spinning countries” to be in the finals. Is it a coincidence that Adidas is the sponsor both of the World Cup and of the French team? Plenty of people believe “that the Swedish referee was party to an unspoken conspiracy.” It’s not so far-fetched. After all, this isn’t just a game. “Big money is involved here.” If Ireland had hosted one of the finals games, and especially if we had won, “it would have given the economy an enormous shot in the arm.”

Nobody here is proud of this “win,” said Yves Thréard in France’s Le Figaro. Ireland’s honor may have been slightly bruised, “but ours has been seriously wounded.” Just about every French politician has expressed dismay or even disgust at Les Bleus’ performance. “Qualifying for the finals through a foul, violating the spirit of the sport—it almost makes us lower our heads in shame.” Pay attention: “The key word there is ‘almost,’” said Charles Bremner in Britain’s Times. The French may be embarrassed about getting caught cheating, but they’re not about to give back their spoils. Evidently “le fair-play, as it is called in French, has its limits.”