Should FIFA suspend Thierry Henry and force France to a re-match against Ireland? What about the other countries, shall we support Ireland and boycott the next world cup?

Why anyone would think to boycott anything in the world of sports, is beyond me…

I don’t think FIFA should suspend Henry.

But I do think a re-match would be the least they could do.

It’s pretty hard to prove WHY the referee ruled the way he did. You would have to look at a pattern of calls from a specific ref before you should do anything to the ref. Henry should face some penalty for sure. As to a rematch, it’s a question of the rules. Do the rules allow for such a rematch? In American football we have bad calls all the time. Before there was instant replay and coaches’ challenges if a call went against you, that was life. No doubt winning teams, teams with reputations get better calls, but that’s the nature of sports, at some point you have to rely on the ref’s judgement.

Boy, no. Too many people want to go, and your not being there won’t change anything. Boycotts only work when you take people away, not when you’re not there but someone else will be.

Suspend Henry no either. He handled the ball with his hands, but that’s not a punishable offense beyond a penalty in the game.

As for the refs, I think they’re fair game. Proving they have something against certain teams would be hard though.

Having read the other responses I’ve changed my mind. Henry should not be penalized after the fact, especially given that he’s telling the truth about it.

Of course not. To do that would mean you’d have to go back and look at every single call (and every single non-call) in every game that was ever played. It would invalidate every recordbook ever recorded.

The game was played. A bad call was made (or not made). That’s life. Move on.

If it can be demonstrated that the ref had it in for that one particular team/player, and intentionally made a bad call, then he should be suspended at the least, possibly fired. That’s to help insure fairness in all future games. But it doesn’t reverse the outcome of the games already played.

No. This has happened before and will happen again. Though, that Swedish ref might have trouble getting high profile matches again.

I don’t think the ref was clearly ruling in favour of France – I can imagine him not seeing it.

However, it is incredibly unfair to Ireland, and I pity their supporters (and the Netherlands, which would have been in the first jar had Ireland won). Though I don’t really see this rectified correctly, and don’t even consider a boycott an option, I do think this should be prevented in the future, by hurrying the hell up with making use of technology. A lot of errors can be prevented without adding another official having to stare at the sides of the goals, just by doing this, and it should’ve been done long ago. If only the referee could have paused the game after the goal and discuss with people looking at video screenings he could’ve disapproved the goal and the game could’ve been continued fairly. There really would be no protesting it because the camera doesn’t lie.

@Vincentt Indeed. I think it’s time that Europe follow what the Americans did with American football. These things don’t need to happen.

@oratio Yeah or what about every other sports union with some sense did. Poor Irishmen.

@Vincentt I concur. The NFL’s system is actually quite effective.

No. Even though the goal shouldn’t have counted, they ruled, and the game is over.
They should begin using video replay, and this will make that happen sooner.

I feel sorry for the ref’s though. It’s hard to see everything in a game like this, but to miss 4 calls at one time is remarkable.

I think something is rotten in the FIFA.

No. Thierry Henry even admitted it. I think the referee is in trouble.

Who pays the refs?