Thierry Henry has finally made the switch to USA's New York Red Bulls official after so many rumors being mooted even from the previous year. Thierry Henry is not just any player, he's a football player who has lit up football so much for the last decade and a half in Europe. From his breakthrough season with Monaco under Arsene Wenger, from the way he performed so well to impress the then France coach Aime Jacquet to include him into the national set-up, and went on to win the World Cup in 1998, then to his big transfer overseas to Juventus which did not end really well, and to when his Monaco manager Arsene Wenger rescued him to Arsenal, converted him into a pacy striker, and the rest is history as he contributed so much to Arsenal he deserves the title “Mr. Arsenal” and his move to Barcelona where he helped the Catalan club win the famous Treble. Towards the end of his glittering and eventful career, it has somewhat taken a dive in the past few years, especially in the season just past. He lost his first team place in Barcelona, and in the national set up, he provoked the ire of the entire Republic of Ireland for “that” handball incident in the World Cup qualifiers playoffs, and also the messy and sad (except if you are an Irish) World Cup campaign. Seems that everything that could go wrong, go wrong for the Frenchman. Thus, now he has moved away from Europe, where all those eclectic mixture of greatness and craziness are jumbled up into one for a new journey in the Major League Soccer (MLS) in the USA with New York Red Bulls.
This transfer undoubtedly created such a hype that many pundits around the world have started to compare and even gauge whether this transfer will be even more hyped and impactful than David Beckham's transfer to LA Galaxy from Real Madrid in 2007. Many people are also divided on Henry's motives for the transfer, some cited monetary purposes, some cited escapism from all those things in Europe, and some other even would cite re-launching his recently flailing career on greener pastures. All these will be delved carefully by yours truly in a moment.
Firstly, many people have started to come into a conclusion that Henry agreed for the move to NY Red Bulls simply for the money, or for a player on he wrong end of his career, to go on to “semi retirement” in the USA. There have been many top players in the past that have done this kind of moves from the top European Leagues where they have played during their hey-days to a considerably weaker league in another continent. Examples are ranging from Franz Beckenbauer and Pele's moves to the now defunct New York Cosmos in 1970s, Mario Kempes and Roger Milla playing in Indonesia, and recently Fernandi Hierro and Gabriel Batistuta in Qatar, and even more recently Fabio Cannavaro moving to the UAE. When one moves to these leagues, and MLS is certainly one of them, these players are specially treated, and for Thierry Henry's case in MLS, he's one of the few designated “marquee players” in his club as MLS allows some players in the club, especially overseas stars to be those designated players and thus the league's salary cap does not apply to them. This translates to sky high wages, which is also seen as necessary to attract these players to these leagues. Thus, many argued that this is the reason why Henry was compelled for a move to the MLS. Probably that's the case, as had he moved to smaller clubs in Europe, such as his first club Monaco, he might even be required to take pay-cuts to play for them as even if they are willing to give the player a high wage, but they might not be able to really afford it. But, in these leagues such as in West Asia and the USA, money is not really an issue and they are prepared to pay huge sums of money to attract these players into their shores.
By now, many people would think that footballers only think about money. But, we have to see things in perspective. Even if they “play” football for a living, it's still for a living, and “playing football”, the thing which they constantly do, is actually working. They are working to earn money, and the huge sum of money that they are receiving is actually because of the rarity of top professional footballers. Basic economic law, when supply is low, price is high. Thus, we shouldn't blame any players including Henry if they consider the monetary aspects as well when considering a move. However, even if Henry did consider that aspect for his move to New York, we have to see that it might just be one small reasons out of a plethora of reasons such as the ones I am bout to highlight.
The second possible motive for this move is also perhaps to really escape all the unwanted media attention that he has been getting in Europe, starting from his decline in form for Barcelona and France, as well as the handball and World Cup fracas. I know that his move generated such a huge hype that almost literally sent a huge shock-wave to shake the the whole world (which we will touch upon again later on). However, we have to realize one more thing, that MLS is not really under the microscope, unlike the top leagues such as the La Liga, English Premier League (mooted transfer to Newcastle United or Manchester City), and even if he had decided to come back to France to Ligue 1. He will still be under immense pressure from media and his every move will be under a watchful gigantic microscope, the last thing he wants, especially at this stage of his career.
For the MLS, not only it is really difficult to watch a live match of the league outside of the USA, even within the USA itself, Americans are too busy following other more “American sports” such as Rugby (NFL), basketball (NBA), and baseball (MLB). It means that somehow once the hype of his transfer ha settled down, he would be able to settle down nicely as well in his new life in New York. Even Beckham, throughout his seasons with LA Galaxy did not really receive a lot of media attention in Europe (thus the world) and as mentioned, even in the USA it will be massively shielded by the shadows from those aforementioned American sports. Thus, he would not be getting massive media attention week-in week-out, and this is necessary to implement the saying “time will heal everything” as over time, and with little attention, his wrongdoings (read: Irish debacle) will be quietly forgotten, although I won't bet against his handball replay being featured just before every World Cup editions from now on. But in any case, he will be left to do his own stuff with New York Red Bulls in relative peace.
The third reason will be about the pure sporting reason of Henry's transfer to the New York Red Bulls. As I mentioned, at this stage of his career, he is unlikely to get many games had he stayed on in the top leagues of Europe. Thus it is rational in the sporting term that he moves to a “weaker” league in another continent. In New York Red Bulls, he is already tipped to create a prolific partnership with fellow former EPL star Juan Pablo Angel (who is himself becoming a great striker in MLS unlike his rather mediocre self in Aston Villa shirt) and I believe Henry will do well as he is more than likely to get a regular run of games throughout the season as well as scoring plenty of goals for fun. This in turn will bring Henry hope with one eye towards the sacred blue shirt with the cockerel logo. Some top pundits have mentioned that Henry will forget about the national team, unlike Beckham who kept and still keeps his availability for a call-up to the national team. However, I believe that when Henry finally proves to be a very prolific striker with the New York Red Bulls, I believe he will surface again in the European media about his possible return to the national team set-up. I believe he will not spurn that chance to represent les-bleus again especially as he would be hungry to prove any doubters wrong and to “settle unfinished business” from the disastrous World Cup 2010 campaign, even if he is to feature for France as an impact substitute rather than being a pillar of the team.
I believe, Henry's reason for opting to go to the USA is indeed an eclectic mixture of the various reasons mentioned above jumbled into one. In any case, I believe Henry's words to the media that he's not going to New York for a lengthy and paid vacations, but he's a man on a mission, eager to get the records straight again, and also to prove to the whole world that there's still plenty of gas left in his tank despite many claiming that his career is as good as finished.
Also, we have to remember that this transfer is not a one way thing in which only Henry benefits from all of these. His club stands to gain a lot of things with Henry on board. Firstly, he will certainly augment their attacking force and MLS fans will now shudder to think and calculate the possible amount of goals that could be scored by the Angel-Henry partnership between the two of them and that how far New York Red Bulls could possibly go in the competition. Besides that, the club also stands to gain a lot of financial windfall as merchandising from shirt sales will definitely go up which will benefit the club greatly, and also not forgetting the fact that many people will now want to go to the games to see Thierry Henry in action, I have also seen some facebook statuses (from Americans) that with the arrival of Henry in the MLS, this is definitely the time to start going to the games. This translates into one thing, that attendances for MLS games, especially during New York Red Bulls' home matches will rise sharply, and this is definitely good for soccer as this game will definitely garner a lot of interests from the American public. Even though again many pundits claiming that Henry is not on a mission to change the soccer scape of the USA unlike what Beckham explicitly set out to do, he might just inadvertently do exactly that and make USA's soccer as well as the Beautiful Game as a whole to become a much better game. In any case, for one, I am eager to see how Thierry Henry will rejuvenate his career in the USA as well as rejuvenate the whole of US Soccer as well as the world.
Showing posts with label Thierry Henry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thierry Henry. Show all posts
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Do France deserve their World Cup 2010 spot?
The question about whether or not France deserve to be taking part in the 2010 edition of the World Cup in South Africa has not been asked for such a long time, at least among the non-Irish in this world. However, with the World Cup in less than a month away from the time of writing, and also the fact that personally I have yet to present my case and perspective on this issue, I feel that this is the appropriate time to answer those big questions regarding the World Cup prior to the much anticipated opening match between the hosts South Africa and Mexico. Thus, despite seemingly to be the other way round, I dare say that France actually fully deserve their spot in the competition despite the widespread condemnation due to the nature of how their spot was clinched at the expense of the gallant Republic of Ireland and the reasons why will be covered in the following paragraphs.
The first reason why France deserve their spot in the upcoming World Cup is simply because of the time honored rule from FIFA regarding the referee's decisions in a football match. To be precise, it is about the very rule that no matter what, the referee's decisions in a match are final. There have been many well documented and hotly debated huge football incidents regarding referee's decisions in the past which are still disputed and begrudged even until this very day. I will just take arguably two of the most prominent of such incidents which are Geoff Hurst's infamous “phantom goal” which resulted in England winning their first and so far only World Cup every in 1996 on home soil at the expense of Germany and of course the “Hand of God” goal by Diego Maradona which arguably the knockout blow to England in the 1986's World Cup and of course a huge catalyst of Argentina winning that year's edition of the World Cup.
Therefore, just by taking a look at those two incidents, it could be seen that it is futile to debate all those incidents even in the decades after those incidents actually occurred. We have seen thousands of complaints from the German and English players who were undermined in the respective incidents, we have seen the replays of those incidents so many times that the replay is totally ingrained in our memories such that we are able to play out the exact video right in our minds. But one thing remains. The respective goals have stood until today. Referee's decisions are final. Period. So, it's pretty much the same for the incident when Thierry Henry swatted the ball for William Gallas to score which in turn swatting his country all the way to South Africa while swatting Ireland out of commission. No matter how the Irish want to debate this issue until we have introduced football to the aliens in the space and when we are able to host Mars United to play a friendly game, the decision will never be overturned and yes, this argument comes to a full circle, the referee's decision is final. Even if Thierry Henry had carried the ball with his hands, rugby style, all the way to beyond Shay Given's goal-line, and IF the referee allowed it, that's a goal, and nothing can ever change that, not even millions of Shillelagh blows on the referee's or Henry's head will be able to change anything, let alone the result of the match.
The second reason why France deserves to be in South Africa next month is pertaining to how FIFA made a very controversial rule change for the play-off stage of the UEFA World Cup qualifying campaign. The rule change was that FIFA suddenly decided to seed the teams who were in the playoffs according to their FIFA ranking. The reason for the controversy surrounding this decision is mainly due to the rather surprising conclusion in the various groups of the qualification campaign in which the football powerhouses such as France, Portugal, and even Russia didn't manage to top their groups and thus had to negotiate a potentially tricky random fixtures in the playoffs. But the rule change guaranteed that these powerhouses won't be facing one another. This sent the football conspiracy theorists to work overtime and concluded that this was all a conspiracy by FIFA to get as many top teams as possible in the World Cup while of course culling the “undesirable” teams as far as sponsorship and attendance issues are concerned. Had there been no rule change at all, we would have seen two top teams against each other, for example France vs Portugal and thus one of those teams would have to miss this year's World Cup. In the end, Portugal faced Bosnia-Herzegovina while France faced Republic of Ireland for the very clash which ignited debates such as what is being discussed in this article. In the end, both France and Portugal qualified. The only instance of the smaller teams defying the controversial rule change is only Slovenia as they managed to beat Guus Hiddink's fancied Russian team.
Well, if we look at this rule change objectively, it is indeed makes a whole world of sense for FIFA to try their best (according to the conspiracy theories at least) to get France and Portugal among other top teams to be in the World Cup for the aforementioned sponsorship and attendance issues. Picture this, it would be a disaster for sponsors such as NIKE and Adidas just to name two if players under contracts with them such as Thierry Henry and Cristiano Ronaldo are to miss the competition. It would be an utter disaster as far as profits are concerned. Besides sponsorship issues, we have to look at the attendance and gate receipt issues. How can one expect the South African populace and tourists from all over the world to pay a huge sum of money to go to the various South African cities where the matches are held to look at teams which an average fan would struggle to name just three squad members? (with all due respects to the teams). Even if one points out at Bosnian and Irish stars such as Hasan Salihamidzic, Vedad Ibisevic, Robbie Keane, and Shay Given, people would certainly prefer to see players such as Thierry Henry, Cristiano Ronaldo, Hugo Lloris, and Simao. I mean, the latter four players would put more bums on the seats of the South African stadiums. Again, it would be an utter disaster if the first World Cup on African soil is to fail due to poor attendance? The sight of the empty stadiums will be such a shameful sight for FIFA's top brass and also for South Africans and even for the world as a whole for that matter! Thus, it doesn't matter if the conspiracy theories are true or not, the fact that France is a team filled with the who's who in football and also perhaps the very fact that France has a better prospect in the competition in providing stern challenges that even Ireland (sorry Ireland fans) in the competition and thus, let's just be objective and harden our hearts, but yes, France deserves to be in the competition when we look at the economic reasons, (sponsorship and attendance) as well as in terms of the competition's pedigree as a whole. (the fact that France can potentially go further than Ireland and Bosnia-Herzegovina for instance and thus provide quality matches instead of thrashings).
The third and last reason for the day is also a bitter pill to swallow for the Irish, but let's all face it with our objective glasses, as what I would expect for anyone reading the previous paragraph. It is true that the one particular goal which resulted from the infamous handball was the sucker punch which destroyed all hopes of the Irish to go to the World Cup. But why? It's of course due to the fact that the Irish had first lost 1-0 in Dublin on the first leg of the tie and had a mountain to climb for the second leg in Paris. Robbie Keane managed to score one goal to bring the aggregate to 1-1 and to extra time. That's when the Hand of Henry assist ruined everything. But would it have been such a decisive incident had Ireland were 4-0 up for instance in that match, or if that seems too much, a 3-0 advantage from the first leg in Dublin? The extra time would not have happened and it is likely that the incident would not have happened. Of course it would not be right on my part to keep asking the what if questions, which I believe have been asked countless of times before, even until today. But that's what it is. Had Ireland managed to take their chances well, especially if they had managed to make full use of their home advantage in the first leg, not even two of such goals would prove to be so detrimental. But then again, we have to realize that the playoffs are never easy, not even after the aforementioned FIFA rule change and thus sometimes it takes just one goal, one mishap, one wrong referee decision to turn things around, and that's what happened, just like the two incidents in 1966 and 1986 mentioned above. Thus, based on the results alone over two legs. France deserves to go through as they managed to “hold off” Ireland in the two legs, especially in the 2nd leg after Robbie Keane's early goal in the match to stay in contention and won it, even if the assist to the winning goal wasn't a legitimate one.
Despite all of the reasons mentioned above regarding how France deserve their spot, it is pertinent that we should not immediately conclude that France totally, fully deserve their spot in the competition. It is because, no matter what, what Henry had done in the match was such a disgraceful act. It was obviously a blatant act not only to keep the ball from going out of the playing field for a goal kick, but also to launch the ball right on William Gallas' path, who is one of the French players in the Irish penalty box. Even though this is a football era in which the stakes are so high that the end justifies the means more often than not, and also in Henry's personal perspective that if France doesn't qualify, he might have played his last World Cup match in 2006 final, which didn't end that well for the French. But still, Thierry Henry is a world class superstar playing in world class matches beamed to a global audience, and there are kids who adore him as an idol and treat him as their role model. If that's the kind of example that he is setting on the pitch, it is saddening to see that the kids would think that it is okay to cheat their way to victory as long as they can win matches for their team, which is a wrong idea which might translate to other fields if they do not play football such as in their school examinations and even in the business world that they might end up as the next Nick Leeson and other irresponsible CEOs which might not only ruin a company but also ruin the whole world's economy as evident in the recent global financial crisis. But then again, football is not a philanthropic work, at least not today, and thus attaining goals, whether collective ones (bringing one's country to the World Cup) or individual ones (Henry's wish to play in one more World Cup for example) are at the top of the agenda, and I am afraid, in modern football at least, morality and even caring for the kids' affected moral values is nowhere near the top or even on the priority list itself...
In conclusion, no matter how many liters of Irish tears and also desperate attempts by the Irish to overturn the result, such as when they go as far as appealing to FIFA to include them as the competition's 33rd team, we have to see from the combination of the reasons stated above from how the referee's decision is final, how FIFA, the sponsors, and even the footballing world as a whole would benefit from France's inclusion in the World Cup, and also not forgetting the fact that the Irish failed to stamp their mark in the two matches to kill the tie off so that they are guaranteed a spot without heart stopping moments such as Henry's handball to ruin everything contribute to the fact that France deserve to be in the World Cup to entertain all of us. Although again the Irish and other detractors might wish for France to do another 2002 and exit the World Cup unceremoniously, I would beg to differ. I even dare say that since I have tipped Argentina (another team expected to go out early) to win this World Cup, and France, like Argentina is a team who have struggled a lot in the qualification campaign, and we know that teams that struggle in the qualification campaign tend to go far. Of course I am not that superstitious as to say that this is the only factor, but there are other factors which is totally out of the discussion in this particular occasion. In a nutshell, I am not ruling out the final consisting of a match between France and Argentina in this edition's World Cup! Therefore, I might even write another article in two months' time about whether France deserves to be in the final or even deserve to win the cup in the event that they do!
The first reason why France deserve their spot in the upcoming World Cup is simply because of the time honored rule from FIFA regarding the referee's decisions in a football match. To be precise, it is about the very rule that no matter what, the referee's decisions in a match are final. There have been many well documented and hotly debated huge football incidents regarding referee's decisions in the past which are still disputed and begrudged even until this very day. I will just take arguably two of the most prominent of such incidents which are Geoff Hurst's infamous “phantom goal” which resulted in England winning their first and so far only World Cup every in 1996 on home soil at the expense of Germany and of course the “Hand of God” goal by Diego Maradona which arguably the knockout blow to England in the 1986's World Cup and of course a huge catalyst of Argentina winning that year's edition of the World Cup.
Therefore, just by taking a look at those two incidents, it could be seen that it is futile to debate all those incidents even in the decades after those incidents actually occurred. We have seen thousands of complaints from the German and English players who were undermined in the respective incidents, we have seen the replays of those incidents so many times that the replay is totally ingrained in our memories such that we are able to play out the exact video right in our minds. But one thing remains. The respective goals have stood until today. Referee's decisions are final. Period. So, it's pretty much the same for the incident when Thierry Henry swatted the ball for William Gallas to score which in turn swatting his country all the way to South Africa while swatting Ireland out of commission. No matter how the Irish want to debate this issue until we have introduced football to the aliens in the space and when we are able to host Mars United to play a friendly game, the decision will never be overturned and yes, this argument comes to a full circle, the referee's decision is final. Even if Thierry Henry had carried the ball with his hands, rugby style, all the way to beyond Shay Given's goal-line, and IF the referee allowed it, that's a goal, and nothing can ever change that, not even millions of Shillelagh blows on the referee's or Henry's head will be able to change anything, let alone the result of the match.
The second reason why France deserves to be in South Africa next month is pertaining to how FIFA made a very controversial rule change for the play-off stage of the UEFA World Cup qualifying campaign. The rule change was that FIFA suddenly decided to seed the teams who were in the playoffs according to their FIFA ranking. The reason for the controversy surrounding this decision is mainly due to the rather surprising conclusion in the various groups of the qualification campaign in which the football powerhouses such as France, Portugal, and even Russia didn't manage to top their groups and thus had to negotiate a potentially tricky random fixtures in the playoffs. But the rule change guaranteed that these powerhouses won't be facing one another. This sent the football conspiracy theorists to work overtime and concluded that this was all a conspiracy by FIFA to get as many top teams as possible in the World Cup while of course culling the “undesirable” teams as far as sponsorship and attendance issues are concerned. Had there been no rule change at all, we would have seen two top teams against each other, for example France vs Portugal and thus one of those teams would have to miss this year's World Cup. In the end, Portugal faced Bosnia-Herzegovina while France faced Republic of Ireland for the very clash which ignited debates such as what is being discussed in this article. In the end, both France and Portugal qualified. The only instance of the smaller teams defying the controversial rule change is only Slovenia as they managed to beat Guus Hiddink's fancied Russian team.
Well, if we look at this rule change objectively, it is indeed makes a whole world of sense for FIFA to try their best (according to the conspiracy theories at least) to get France and Portugal among other top teams to be in the World Cup for the aforementioned sponsorship and attendance issues. Picture this, it would be a disaster for sponsors such as NIKE and Adidas just to name two if players under contracts with them such as Thierry Henry and Cristiano Ronaldo are to miss the competition. It would be an utter disaster as far as profits are concerned. Besides sponsorship issues, we have to look at the attendance and gate receipt issues. How can one expect the South African populace and tourists from all over the world to pay a huge sum of money to go to the various South African cities where the matches are held to look at teams which an average fan would struggle to name just three squad members? (with all due respects to the teams). Even if one points out at Bosnian and Irish stars such as Hasan Salihamidzic, Vedad Ibisevic, Robbie Keane, and Shay Given, people would certainly prefer to see players such as Thierry Henry, Cristiano Ronaldo, Hugo Lloris, and Simao. I mean, the latter four players would put more bums on the seats of the South African stadiums. Again, it would be an utter disaster if the first World Cup on African soil is to fail due to poor attendance? The sight of the empty stadiums will be such a shameful sight for FIFA's top brass and also for South Africans and even for the world as a whole for that matter! Thus, it doesn't matter if the conspiracy theories are true or not, the fact that France is a team filled with the who's who in football and also perhaps the very fact that France has a better prospect in the competition in providing stern challenges that even Ireland (sorry Ireland fans) in the competition and thus, let's just be objective and harden our hearts, but yes, France deserves to be in the competition when we look at the economic reasons, (sponsorship and attendance) as well as in terms of the competition's pedigree as a whole. (the fact that France can potentially go further than Ireland and Bosnia-Herzegovina for instance and thus provide quality matches instead of thrashings).
The third and last reason for the day is also a bitter pill to swallow for the Irish, but let's all face it with our objective glasses, as what I would expect for anyone reading the previous paragraph. It is true that the one particular goal which resulted from the infamous handball was the sucker punch which destroyed all hopes of the Irish to go to the World Cup. But why? It's of course due to the fact that the Irish had first lost 1-0 in Dublin on the first leg of the tie and had a mountain to climb for the second leg in Paris. Robbie Keane managed to score one goal to bring the aggregate to 1-1 and to extra time. That's when the Hand of Henry assist ruined everything. But would it have been such a decisive incident had Ireland were 4-0 up for instance in that match, or if that seems too much, a 3-0 advantage from the first leg in Dublin? The extra time would not have happened and it is likely that the incident would not have happened. Of course it would not be right on my part to keep asking the what if questions, which I believe have been asked countless of times before, even until today. But that's what it is. Had Ireland managed to take their chances well, especially if they had managed to make full use of their home advantage in the first leg, not even two of such goals would prove to be so detrimental. But then again, we have to realize that the playoffs are never easy, not even after the aforementioned FIFA rule change and thus sometimes it takes just one goal, one mishap, one wrong referee decision to turn things around, and that's what happened, just like the two incidents in 1966 and 1986 mentioned above. Thus, based on the results alone over two legs. France deserves to go through as they managed to “hold off” Ireland in the two legs, especially in the 2nd leg after Robbie Keane's early goal in the match to stay in contention and won it, even if the assist to the winning goal wasn't a legitimate one.
Despite all of the reasons mentioned above regarding how France deserve their spot, it is pertinent that we should not immediately conclude that France totally, fully deserve their spot in the competition. It is because, no matter what, what Henry had done in the match was such a disgraceful act. It was obviously a blatant act not only to keep the ball from going out of the playing field for a goal kick, but also to launch the ball right on William Gallas' path, who is one of the French players in the Irish penalty box. Even though this is a football era in which the stakes are so high that the end justifies the means more often than not, and also in Henry's personal perspective that if France doesn't qualify, he might have played his last World Cup match in 2006 final, which didn't end that well for the French. But still, Thierry Henry is a world class superstar playing in world class matches beamed to a global audience, and there are kids who adore him as an idol and treat him as their role model. If that's the kind of example that he is setting on the pitch, it is saddening to see that the kids would think that it is okay to cheat their way to victory as long as they can win matches for their team, which is a wrong idea which might translate to other fields if they do not play football such as in their school examinations and even in the business world that they might end up as the next Nick Leeson and other irresponsible CEOs which might not only ruin a company but also ruin the whole world's economy as evident in the recent global financial crisis. But then again, football is not a philanthropic work, at least not today, and thus attaining goals, whether collective ones (bringing one's country to the World Cup) or individual ones (Henry's wish to play in one more World Cup for example) are at the top of the agenda, and I am afraid, in modern football at least, morality and even caring for the kids' affected moral values is nowhere near the top or even on the priority list itself...
In conclusion, no matter how many liters of Irish tears and also desperate attempts by the Irish to overturn the result, such as when they go as far as appealing to FIFA to include them as the competition's 33rd team, we have to see from the combination of the reasons stated above from how the referee's decision is final, how FIFA, the sponsors, and even the footballing world as a whole would benefit from France's inclusion in the World Cup, and also not forgetting the fact that the Irish failed to stamp their mark in the two matches to kill the tie off so that they are guaranteed a spot without heart stopping moments such as Henry's handball to ruin everything contribute to the fact that France deserve to be in the World Cup to entertain all of us. Although again the Irish and other detractors might wish for France to do another 2002 and exit the World Cup unceremoniously, I would beg to differ. I even dare say that since I have tipped Argentina (another team expected to go out early) to win this World Cup, and France, like Argentina is a team who have struggled a lot in the qualification campaign, and we know that teams that struggle in the qualification campaign tend to go far. Of course I am not that superstitious as to say that this is the only factor, but there are other factors which is totally out of the discussion in this particular occasion. In a nutshell, I am not ruling out the final consisting of a match between France and Argentina in this edition's World Cup! Therefore, I might even write another article in two months' time about whether France deserves to be in the final or even deserve to win the cup in the event that they do!
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