Hand of Henry

About

Hand of Henry refers to the handball tiebreaker illegally scored by the French football player Thierry Henry during the second qualifier match for World Cup 2010 between France and Ireland on November 18, 2009.

Origin

In November 2009, the French and Irish national football teams went head-to-head twice for the World Cup 2010 regional qualifiers. The first match, which took place in Ireland’s Croke Park on November 14th, resulted in the French victory (Anelka, Goal 72’).

The second match, which took place four days later in France, came to a standstill at 1 – 1 (aggregate score) after 90 minutes. At about 13 minutes into extra time, French player Florent Malouda executed a free kick toward Thierry Henry, who handled the bouncing ball to keep it in play before tapping it over to his teammate William Gallas, who then headed the ball into the Irish net.

Reaction

Henry’s handball incident quickly turned into an international controversy, with the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) and the government calling FIFA to settle the dispute through rematch or allow the Irish team to enter the World Cup as the 33rd qualifier.

When both requests were rejected by the FIFA, the Irish and other European sports media dubbed the incident as “Hand of Henry,” comparing it to the infamous “Hand of God” goal scored by Argentina’s Diego Maradona during the quarter-final match against England in 1986 World Cup:

Memorial Sites

• Hand of Frog [EN]: http://www.henryhandoffrog.com/
• La Main de Thierry Henry [FR]: http://www.mainhenry.com/

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