International Break Roundup

By: Ryan | November 19th, 2009

This past week(s) we’ve have a couple united boys playing for their countries, attempting to qualify for South Africa. While its not directly “United Related”, there’s no way I cannot bring up the most blatant handball since Maradonna’s “Hand of God”.

So a quick roundup of the scores and the United personnel playing before I get to more on to what is going to be the single most discussed play in recent times:

France 1 – 1 Ireland (2-1 Aggregate)
France : Patrice Evra
Ireland : John O’Shea, Darren Gibson

Portugal 1 – B&H (2-0 Aggregate)
Portugal : Nani

Okay, so the handball (seen/touch/heard) ’round the world. By now I’m sure you’ve all seen the videos (if you haven’t check here), and its blatant. Henry admitted it, the French national team as a whole admitted it, and even the Refs eventually admitted they screwed up. Now, I’ll get this out in the open, a large portion of my family is Irish. I wanted Ireland to go though, so needless to say I was not “thrilled” about the events that transpired, which got me to thinking. Even when the refs admit they DID make a mistake, it doesn’t change anything. FIFA law clearly states that all referee decisions are final, which means for Ireland, they’re out of luck. But is this policy actually working when you look at the the recent questionable calls ?

Football does not have any replay system (which I believe is good, and should stay as such), but we can’t keep ignoring these problems, mostly instances like the handball (missed/muddled calls) and the future Olympic Sport of Football Diving. Our acronym governing bodies need to come up with some system (COUGH MORE OFFICIALS PLACED ON GOAL LINES COUGH COUGH) to combat the issue, the real question is will they ?

All in all, as much as I enjoy international breaks (this one is going to be stricken from my mind), I’m glad we get some good ‘ole fashioned EPL action this week when we take on Everton (preview will be coming shortly).