Cultural handball

by Andrew Whittaker
November 20th, 2009

Come on France, what’s going on?

President Sarkozy has apologised to Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen for the Thierry Henry handball that effectively sent France through to the World Cup finals in South Africa next year… and put Ireland out.

And well he might. The French captain stuck out an arm, kept the ball in play and then steered it to teammate William Gallas who scored to save French pride. And all this in extra time. To his credit, Henry fessed up after the game, even though he celebrated like a lottery winner when the goal went in.

But let’s rewind three years or so. The World Cup final. France vs Italy. French hero Zinedine Zidane, the best player to tread the turf anywhere in the world for a good few years, gets the rouge mist and head butts Italian defender Materazzi after some unfavourable comments about his sister. Not unreasonably, Zidane is sent off.

So, did the French President, then Jacques Chirac, apologise to Italy during the subsequent furore?

No, he hailed Zidane a hero. Elsewhere, philosopher François Sureau wrote that Zidane’s actions had given the French back their “beautiful reputation for insolence”.

So, have they gone soft? Is Sarkozy’s apology a symptom of cultural change in France? Have the French started caring what the rest of the world thinks of them?

Comments (4)

I’m not really qualified to comment, since David Mitchell perfectly sums up my thoughts of football:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MusyO7J2inM

Posted by Matthew • 20 November 2009, 09:34

I was reading Richard Williams yesterday in The Guardian, and he maintains that Henry missed a chance to become one of the immortals by not owning up and stopping play as soon as he’d finished his basketball moves. It looked fairly pathetic to see him have a sit down with the Irish players in a weedy gesture of misplaced empathy.

Zidane’s head-butt wasn’t cheating; it was a gesture of anger and frustration, as was Cantona’s all-too-short battering of a racist moron.

I suppose I thought Henry was a bit of a gent, but apparently not; he’s widely regarded as someone who’s taken diving to an art that only Didier Drogba has surpassed.

So I think Sarkozy’s apology is a risible example of that same pathetic political mindset that compels Gordon Brown to affect an interest in X Factor and that Strictly Come Prancing garbage.

Anyway, we all know they’re overpaid, ignorant spoilt pissweasels, (a glorious Charlie Brooker-ism) and that goes for the footballers too.

Posted by Johnny Bull • 20 November 2009, 12:31

I'm a Bristol City supporter and had to suffer much criticism for the phantom goal at Crystal Palace earlier in the season. People said we (and maybe Henry) should of owned up at the time, but we didn't and the mass confusion that followed didn't help anybody - we went on to win... you guessed it 1-0!

If Henry had subsequently booted the ball into his own net to 'even' things up he would of been lynched. On a similar point, I think it was Yeovil vs Plymouth and the ball was kicked back to the opposing team after a player fell down injured and the ball was put out of play showing great sportsmanship. But when the ball was booted back to the opposing team the kick flew over the keepers head into the goal. One nil! Mmmm... what to do? Well the team now one nil up allowed an opposing player to walk all the way from the kick off with the ball into their net! Very fair.

And on the subject of fair (and I really wanted the Rep of Ireland at the WC next year) didn't the Rep of Ireland get a highly suspect penalty vs Georgia... plus I hear Keane had a golden chance vs France... what goes around comes around. But Henry... watch ya back sunshine!

Posted by Craig Porter • 20 November 2009, 15:13

Craig, true what to do about this is a major question. I am more a rugby fan myself and typical of the rugger fan I looked down on football as a game with major flaws as your comment above. How gutted are we to find out rugger is no better (if worse) than fottie for cheating!!!

So a public apology to all my football mates for all the years of ‘…. well we don’t get that in rugby..’

In disgrace…

Posted by Matthew • 7 January 2010, 21:20