SOCCER:FIFA'S DISCIPLINARY Committee finally put the case of Thierry Henry's handball in November's World Cup play-off against the Republic of Ireland at the Stade de France to rest yesterday when it ruled there was no legal basis for taking any action against the Barcelona striker.
At a hearing, the player’s representatives were successful in arguing that the offence in question should not be considered a “serious infringement” for the purposes of administering Article 77a of the organisation’s disciplinary code.
As it happens, the definitions of such offences contained in the code include, “denying an opposing team a goal or an obvious goal-scoring opportunity by deliberately handling the ball”, but not scoring or helping to create an obvious scoring opportunity by using hand.
Article 77b allows the committee to “rectify obvious errors in the disciplinary decisions”, but this was not considered an appropriate basis for action either.
Had an Irish team of football supporting lawyers been let loose on the case, they might well have sought to prosecute it on the basis of Article 54 which deals with “Provoking the general public; Article 57: Offensive behaviour and fair play or, indeed, Section 5: Forgery and falsification.
In a statement issued last night through Fifa, however, it was stated: “The disciplinary committee reached the conclusion that there was no legal foundation for the committee to consider the case because handling the ball cannot be regarded as a serious infringement as stipulated in article 77a) of the Fifa disciplinary code.
“There is no other legal text that would allow the committee to impose sanctions for any incidents missed by match officials.”
It had initially been suggested that Henry’s availability for France’s opening games of the World Cup finals might come under threat as a result of the hearing.
In advance of yesterday’s proceedings, however, it became apparent the worst the 32-year-old faced was a fine.
In the event, he has been spared even that and will be free to lead his country’s side in the warm-up games against Spain, Costa Rica, Tunisia and China as well as the clash with Uruguay on June 11th in Cape Town.
The incident, which was a key part in the build-up to William Gallas’ all-important goal in the first period of extra-time, prompted the Football Association of Ireland to call for a replay and, ultimately, an extra place at this summer’s World Cup, a request that caused a certain amount of mirth abroad and a good deal of embarrassment at home.
The association’s officials were adamant, though, that they did not seek the retrospective sanctioning of Henry, but rather a change in the regulations so as to ensure that playersdid not benefit from cheating.
The association declined to comment on yesterday’s decision when contacted last night.
However, Republic of Ireland defender Seán St Ledger believes the Frenchman should have been punished, arguing if Fifa had the power to seed the qualifiers at the last minute, they should be able to take action against Henry.
“Obviously I don’t want players to get banned, I’m not a fan of that,” he told BBC Radio Five Live. “But (the decision) promotes ‘if you can get away with it, do it’.
“I’ve seen (the incident) again today and I still think he intentionally, the second time, handballed it. I still feel a bit hurt from it.”
He added: “They said they’ve got no legal foundation but they still had the power to change the rules and introduce the seedings.
“I think if they’ve got that kind of power to change that rule I don’t understand why they haven’t got the power to make a ruling here. It’s confusing but at the same time not surprising. It won’t surprise me if France go on and win the World Cup.”
