Only One Football

Thierry Henry does not have many fans in the Republic of Ireland tonight.  The best footballer in the world, according to the Castrol Rankings, used his hand to put France through to the World Cup Finals next Summer. While the Boys in Green are red with fury and probably wouldn’t object to a Hammurabi-like justice exacted on the former Arsenal ace, it should be kept in  mind why France was playing Ireland at all.  FIFA put the fix on, as best they could, weeks before by seeding the UEFA second place playoffs at the last moment so that massive soccer nations like France, Russia and Portugal would have a lesser chance of missing South Africa 2010.  Cheers to Slovenia for defying the soccer gods.

When the lords of the sport announced that the draw would be seeded, the Irish immediately reacted with disgust, and for good reason.  The third-ranked team in their group, Ireland saw their way clear to second place in Group 8, giving Italy a run for their money.  The Irish never lost a group 8 match, drawing 6 times and winning 4 matches.  It was a qualification run that went right along Giovanni Trapattoni’s master plan.  And then came deus ex machina.

Instead of an equal chance of facing France, Russia, Portugal, Ukraine, Greece, Bosnia and Slovenia, FIFA decided in September 2009 - long after qualifying started and as it was basically complete - that the pots should be split into two sets, one of four for the teams with higher world rankings, and another set for 4 the teams with lower rankings.  For Ireland, Bosnia and Slovenia, it meant the chance of a dream draw was gone.  Ireland goalkeeper Shay Given summed it up: “It’s totally unfair on us smaller nations. If they say that before a ball is kicked then at least you know the picture, you know exactly where you stand but to change it now is absolutely ridiculous and I don’t think it’s right at all.”

It may not be right, Mr. Given, but it was the commercially wise thing to do.  A World Cup without poster boy Cristiano Ronaldo?  Without Les Blues?  Without mighty Russia (oops)?  Unthinkable.  So they did the best they could to fix the outcome as favorably as possible, they seeded the draw.  If France, Russia and Portugal were not in jeopardy - if Danish and Serbian dreams were at play instead of those of the French and the cult of Cristiano - would the draw have been seeded at all?  Clearly this wasn’t planned from the start.  Lots of euros, dollars, pounds sterling, simoleons, or whatever your favored currency, was at stake.  The big show without some of its key big players wouldn’t quite be the same.

If it wasn’t the calculated effort of seeding the draw, incompetence on the part of FIFA had a hand in this outcome as much as Thierry Henry.  The lack of instant replay.  The blindness of the line judge.  The deaf ears to the protests of Given and Il Trap.  A blatant catch of the ball, redirected to a foot and crossed to a head booked France passage to South Africa 2010.  The Irish put themselves in the best position that could have reasonably expected from a nation of their size to make it through to the World Cup in a crowded confederation like UEFA.  All that work was foiled by a man from Switzerland who refused to remain neutral, a cheating Frenchman and a blind line judge, each who played their part in preventing a penalty shootout where the Irish would have pit one of the world’s finest goalies in Given against the French and for the first time in 210 minutes find themselves on equal footing with Les Blues.  Perhaps Ireland should just switch federations to CONCACAF, where they could assure themselves a World Cup place every four years.  Now that’s a fix even Sepp Blatter could get behind.