Was what Thierry Henry did right?

There is a update at the end, make sure you read it, before commenting.

France is one of the power houses of Football. But well with a crazy coach with even crazier ideas, they have been struggling to win matches. But Wednesday night saw them qualify for the world.

And in process one of the games best players, Thierry Henry did the unthinkable- deep into extra time, he pushed the ball with his hand, on to his foot and then crossed for William Gallas to head the ball in. Controversy sparked, now the entire world is debating on the issue. (you can watch the video below).

It is quite shocking that he did it. Yes we all know(irrespective of whether you a football fan or not) about the most famous handball, the ‘Hand of God’ by one Diego Armando Maradona. But then there is a lot of difference between the two.

Maradona has the notorious reputation  and had it even before then. But Henry was known to be one of the finest footballers in the world.  But all of a sudden, he is the villain. This is what he had to say-

What can he do anyway? Yes, it was wrong, but at least he admits his mistake, that should tell you something about the man. But then what he did cannot be undone and the Irish are furious. You have school teachers’ associations condemning him and well basically everyone is crying foul(quite literally).

But all the pundits, are now made to answer questions such as “would you have done it to get your country to the world cup?” and it is piquant to say the least to watch them answer, because some where we all know how it is. At 32, this would be his last chance to win the world cup(he of course has the winner’s medal from 1998). As a captain, with media pressure etc, things might have forced him to do it.

Was it a conscious decision? No one plans these things. And what should he have done, gone to the ref. and said that he had handled the ball? What if it had been a reflex or a reaction out of desperation?

I am not trying to defend his act here, but then people should take a step and try to think about it. He is a hero, an icon and an ambassador of the game, surely they might be some explanation?

What he has achieved till date, is quite remarkable(if you want to know more, see here). This one moment will taint his reputation and many will hear about him as the one who cheated, rather than the wonderful person he is.

Personally, I have a huge fan of his(that’s why this post). And well, when you like someone, you don’t want to see them as someone who cheats etc. Maybe that is why I am thinking about the probabilities, maybe that is why this is a debate, this why many wish to see otherwise.

Many things happen, but if he were to lift the world cup coming summer, I will be jumping up and down for sure. But who knows, the only real justice is poetic after all. And well, still it was only an assist and not a goal, someone else, still had to knock it in.

Anyway this might go on forever and we will surely not hear an end to this any time soon. Should FIFA introduced video evidence, yes. IF you know that you will be caught anyway, you might not abstain from things. It is understandable that FIFA doesn’t want to have it, because it will slow the game down. But there is enough tech. out there right now to have it all done pretty fast.

Maybe like in tennis, we can have a certain number of appeals. The manager/captain of the team can decide to do it. There will be confusion of course, because, the game pretty fast and by the time someone decides if they should appeal, the ball might be in their goal. But for such freakish moments, well video evidence will surely help.

Well to conclude, well he did celebrate after that. We all have our own view as to what is right and wrong, but the majority of us(yes even me) feel it is wrong. Should he write to FIFA and say the game should be replayed? Apologies are well, carrying coal to Newcastle( even if they are in the championship 😛 ).

Once a murderer you are always a murderer. But are all murders committed for the same reason? Do we have a   mens rea here?

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Update:- Just read over here and after reading it, I think it is wrong of him to make such statements. Of course laws have loopholes, but then isn’t it about the intent behind the law? To me if a person think about exploiting a law and not trying to understand the basis(and well if the basis is wrong, in my view it can be broken), there surely is some bad intent there.

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P.S:- I have two posts ready in my draft(Felt that I had to post this before them). One of them is a tag, any takers? 😛

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