Henry flourishes in system which rewards dishonesty
Friday November 20 2009
THIERRY Henry is a liar and a cheat. He is also a footballer, and he stands out from his fellow professionals as a sheep stands out in a flock of sheep. It is a a fact of life -- footballers cheat.
Their duty, as they see it, is not to obey the rules, but to do what is best for the team. If a footballer can get away with something that helps the team, he is duty-bound to do the dirty deed. That is the morality of 21st-century professional football.
Alas, football officials base their judgments on the 19th-century assumption that all players are, in a rough and ready fashion, honest. A referee and two assistants must make all the decisions based on the limited information available to them. As a result players not only cheat, they get away with it daily.
colossal
Henry got away with a handball that was obvious to millions who watched France play Ireland -- but not to the referee or his assistants. Their failure means that France will go to the greatest football event on the planet, while Ireland kick their heels at home. It is an outcome that matters to millions of people and involves colossal amounts of money.
The wrong team is going to South Africa. Once again, football has chosen to leave its big-match decisions to chance. Use technology, the slow-motion replay that is available to every television viewer?
Don't even suggest such a thing, you'll have football administrators swooning like virgins. It has always been done this way. Isn't that a good enough argument? Human error has always been part of football and always will be, the administrators argue. True, but there is also an argument that says you have a moral duty to keep error to a minimum in every area of life.
Football could easily avoid these howlers. This year an experiment is being carried out in the Europa Cup, in which extra officials are being placed beside the goals.
They can see things that the referee might miss. More eyes, fewer errors: an obvious advance. But at the game's highest level, we're still in the Stone Age.
True, it is the players, not the referees, who cheat and, yes, it would be nice if footballers tried to be better people. But, alas, they carry on diving, shirt-pulling, elbowing and handballing -- and they do it because they can.
Of course, it isn't what spectators want to see. Sport exists as an attempt to create fairness, some kind of trial in which the better team, or the best competitor, wins. Essential to the very nature of sport is its search for a level playing field.
But in football, once again, sport and its followers have been let down by a system that enshrines errors and rewards cheats.
The answer is staring us all in the face, but television was invented some time after the 19th century, so it may as well not exist. Roll on the World Cup of 2010, and let the cheating commence. (© The Times, London)
- Simon Barnes
Irish Independent
