“I WAS AT home watching the game with my eight-year-old son and you could see the handball in the replay. I wanted to ring him on his mobile and tell him to give the handball!
“Obviously he didn’t have his mobile on him out on the pitch but that was one of the reasons why my view on video technology changed at that point.”
Howard Webb and Martin Hansson were two of the world’s top referees in 2009. They also happened to be close friends.
Ex-police officer Webb had established himself as an elite official in England, while Swede, a fireman by trade, was doing the same in his home country and on the international stage.
That year, however, his role in one of the most infamous sporting moments in Irish sport would alter the trajectory of his career dramatically.
Failing to spot Thierry Henry’s blatant handball in extra-time, Hansson awarded William Gallas’ goal in Paris as France progressed to the 2010 World Cup finals at the expense of Giovanni Trapattoni’s Boys in Green.
Webb still stays in touch with his former colleague, but admits the incident had a lasting affect.
“He was gutted, devastated,” Webb said. “He was probably never quite the same referee again. He dropped down from the elite level and he still referees locally in Sweden.
It probably changed him as a man as well. There was a very interesting documentary about him (The Referee), it was dark and about his life around that time. It’s worth having a watch.
“It’s no consolation to the Irish national team but still that hurt him a lot.”
Hansson had been named as a referee for the World Cup finals in South Africa the following summer but was demoted to fourth official after the blunder.
“If anyone thinks he walked away from that game thinking it didn’t matter, he did go to that World Cup but only worked as a fourth official. He would have been a shoe-in to take games at that tournament and he was probably my best mate in refereeing at the time.”
The call also changed Webb’s beliefs about whether video replays should be introduced to the sport.
My view was that this is a key crucial game here affecting who goes to the biggest tournament in the world and it takes two years to qualify,” he added. “It wasn’t one of those ambiguous situations, it was black or white.
“It was a clear handball, it needs to be called correctly and it wasn’t. It had huge consequences for the Irish team and huge consequences for Martin Hansen and his team on and off the pitch.
“My view changed at that point. How we do that is another matter, and it is what we are talking about six years later.”
Soccer always attracts the best
@John O Reilly: Turkey are a cut above.
@John O Reilly: soccer is a game for all, the rich, the poor and everyone in between. It’s not elitist and is representative of society as a whole, as all sports should be. This incident is representative of our society not soccer fans in general.
@GrumpyAulFella: it’s called football,generally it’s country people & Gaa heads who call it soccer…..FIFA UEFA don’t have the name soccer attached to them
@Tony Doyle: it’s the English themselves who coined the term soccer. People can it whatever they want. Your “country people (whatever that means) and GAA heads” quip is quite nonsensical.
@Tony Doyle: Wrong. It’s not called football. It’s called association football which is where the word soccer comes from and both FIFA and uefa have the word association in their names. It’s not just country people and gaa heads, as you so unintelligently put it, that call it that. It’s called that in other countries as well like the USA and Australia to distinguish it from the likes of American football or Aussie Rules Football in the same way it’s used here to differentiate it from Gaelic football. If anything soccer is a more correct term than just football as it’s derived from the sport’s proper name
@Mark Jay: Correct. Specifically it was students in Oxford who used the terms soccer and rugger to differentiate between association and rugby football
Very unlike the Turkish fans.
Have no interest in any team who supports putin. Fans or club’s.
Disgusting.
It takes a special kind of person to stoop to a level that low. Soccer fans get their moment in the spotlight. Can’t really say it was only a small percent in this case
They are some soulless people in the world unfortunately and this is an example.
Jayyyysus
Strange war if football players don’t have to sign up. Just asking…
@John Smith: perhaps they’re the morale booster the troops need? Something to tune into outside of the war, just saying…
I don’t think there are very many critical thinkers among the readership here.
What would you expect from a pig but a grunt?!
Do you know why the war started?
Gh,
@David Hughes: Well said
@mcdb06: and thanks to you I will be forever in your debt
G
I guess we are all Fenerbache fans now
@JustBEERbarry: don’t you mean Dynamo??
Gh
meh… Kiev still won…. They (the chanting fans) were just showing themselves up as sore losers
Igno rant fules. Likely to be perceived as toxic. And rightly so.
Turkish fans chose right side. Any respect from tolerant Europe?