I keep hearing this
"Yet watching TV the day after the match, I saw footage of the Ireland/Georgia game that took place in February. "Ireland won a penalty that should never have been given. The resulting goal put the team through to the play-off against France" - Matthieu Barbarin, writing in the Guardian
Not quite - Ireland qualified by a good lead of four points over Bulgaria, that one dodgy decision was responsible for two of those points - against the bottom side in the group, whose performances weren't even counted in the decision on the final eight, Ireland comfortably made the second spot regardless of that goal
and, as I've said before, dodgy decisions across a drawn out competition tend to balance themselves out - one single incident in a 30-minute tie-breaker is not quite the same
The other line of pursuit, typically from those who like to pour scorn on popular sports, like Dominic Lawson, is the one that footballers all cheat - Henry simply didn't get caught, so the referee gets the blame much like a copper getting the blame for not stopping a murder
Very true, cheating is tolerated far too much - but he misses the point, simply because Robbie Keane would've done the same thing does not make it acceptable to allow that goal
Why not? Because it's a miscarriage of justice - we know that the goal was a blatant foul, not in some grey area of 'did he/didn't he' - any cheating is noted by the viewers and the press, and disliked by the vast majority, but if no one will act then why won't the players 'chance their arm' - they are human, after all, it doesn't mean we should write the whole game off
You see, what the disdainful commentators fail to add in their criminal metaphor is that what actually happens is, while the crime is indeed committed, even with irrefutable evidence the court does nothing to seek justice - there is no punishment
No wonder they'll have a go at burglary if they can't be tried after 10 million witnesses saw them coming out the back window with a bag marked 'swag' - "ah, but ze referee did not see eet"
It is FIFA who allow this ridiculous fiasco to continue - we all see the crime, but they refuse to act on it with video technology that could easily sort the problem out within 30 seconds, allowing the game to be decided by a couple of fallible humans watching 22 players with nothing but their own eyes, while the audience has a perfect view of every minute detail, not only breeds dishonesty in the players, but anger from the audience - hence the reaction to France's victory - there was absolutely no need to let it stand
Maybe we are hypocrites, all humans are certainly guilty of that at times, but it is the fact that we allow seen cheating to go unpunished that enrages us so, it goes against the desire for natural justice
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