DUBLIN—Ireland’s defeat in Paris last Wednesday to an extra time goal scored by France’s William Gallas, was a bitter pill to swallow when it transpired that Thierry Henry had handled the ball twice prior to passing to Gallas. This event has created a firestorm of controversy not limited to simply soccer communities in Ireland and France but the sports community across the globe.
For the majority of Irish fans, win, lose, or draw they have a great time supporting their country; however this incident has struck a nerve.
Ireland is currently experiencing a lot of pain with respect to the global economic slowdown. The government has had to make dramatic cuts in spending; for many the national team’s World Cup campaign was a welcomed distraction.
Just before 2 p.m. in Dublin on Saturday, the FAI (Football Association of Ireland) issued a statement saying that they had done all they could to force a replay. However, another much more vocal group was meeting outside Lansdowne Road Stadium and they were going to march to the nearby French embassy on Ailesbury Road, in a show of support for fair play in soccer—and perhaps get a replay.
Those involved were members of what has been described as the fastest growing Facebook group in the history.
The group is called “Petition to have IRELAND vs FRANCE REPLAYED!!!” and the group was set up shortly after the game by Kev Storrs. By lunchtime Saturday, they had around 300,000 members. Now there are over 400,000.
The site says that another member group is going to organize a similar event in Sydney Australia. The site has this statement: “We may not have got our replay, but once we hit half a million people, we will present this petition to FIFA and demand the introduction of video referee’ing so this does NOT happen again to another team.”
Dublin Event
A modest turnout of a few hundred sang their way to the French embassy. They sounded like thousands and all were having fun while also making a point. I spoke with several members who marched in Dublin, the majority of whom were there with their families. Parents, children, and grandparents all turned up to voice their concerns about what had transpired last Wednesday evening.
