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Cheating Thierry Henry hands his sponsors a moral dilemma
Matthew Beard, Sports News Correspondent20.11.09
Thierry Henry's earning power could be seriously damaged as sponsors desert him in the wake of the "hand of God" cheating scandal, it emerged today.
As public fury mounted over the Frenchman's role in depriving Ireland of a World Cup place, sponsorship experts warned the footballer could see his annual £15million endorsement deals hit.
Today sponsors were faced with growing evidence of the backlash against their client as millions of football fans turned against him on the internet with 80,000 people joining the impromptu "We Irish hate Thierry Henry (the cheat)" Facebook page. Fans also vented their fury by vandalising the fallen idol's wikipedia page which had to be locked.
Irish prime minister Brian Cowen has accused Henry of foul play and vowed to raise the matter personally with French president Nicolas Sarkozy when they meet at an EU summit.
Sponsors including Gillette, Reebok and Pepsi Cola - tied into strict contracts with their client - have so far stood by Henry. But experts reckon his future earning power may be hit.
Pippa Collett, managing director of Sponsorship Consulting, said: "There's a fine line between an accident and cheating, but in this case Thierry Henry admits that he cheated and perhaps he would have been wise not to comment because that has damaged his integrity.
"If you were a brand that traded very much on trust - products in health care, for example - it would be a bit unfortunate to be aligned with him. I don't think he'll be endorsing financial services any time soon either."
Henry, 32, has been the face of global brands including Renault, Nike, Gillette and Pepsi. Between 2001 and 2006 he earned a reported £14million from Nike, a company he ditched in 2006 to sign with Reebok for a signing-on fee of £9million. He replaced David Beckham as one of the faces of Gillette. This earns him about £2million a year.
How Facebook and Twitter see it
A Facebook page called 'We Irish hate Thierry Henry (the cheat)' has been set up. It has 80,000 fans and counting.
Excerpts include:
"This is a page for those who hate that "harlem globe trotter wannabe" thierry henry......"
Comments include:
"The morning after.. i would say croissant sales will slump today...."
"I hope he has nothing but bad luck for the rest of his career he robbed us of our world cup spot"
"Henry should banned from the World Cup."
"Thierry Henry voodoo dolls would sell real gud at the moment...."
"Monsieur Henry est un grande cochon!" (Translation: Mister Henry is a big pig!)
"Michael Jordan quit basketball for baseball, so why can't Thierry Henry be allowed to quit soccer for volleyball?"
... and from Twitter
jnorthall: Thierry Henry says he didn't deliberately handle the ball. Gillette - best a man can get? Really?
@TIME: Thierry Henry's hand in assisting a goal against Ireland makes our list of the top 10 sporting cheats
david_feller: "The fall from grace is steep and swift, and when you land, it does no make a sound, because you are alone" C. Williams (for Thierry Henry?)
padre969: Thierry Henry's "Hand of Frog". Just too funny.
BluntChick: Thierry Henry handball is the best thing to happen to international soccer in the USA ever! Every show was leading off SOCCER!!
@alandavies1: For sale: one Thierry Henry autograph.. signed by the hand itself!! lol
from someone claiming to be Diego Maradona: "I know how it feels! See you in South Africa."
And from Thierry Henry's own Twitter:
"I'm not the referee - but if I hurt someone I'm sorry."
Reader views (39)
The game has many episodes of discredit -
Maradonna & Henry's handball "goals"
Goal after ball strikes beach ball tossed onto the pitch by a "fan"
Many a faked trip/injury inside and outside the goal area.
No small wonder we created our own game. Aussie Rules !! A game for real men and a real test of character - no pads, no armour, no quarter given.
- Elton_In_Oz, Orstralia
Thierry is a good player, French National team is a good team but Ireland is the team that would have to be at the next round. They play hard, more than french, and this hand is a very big problem about how to understand modern football. Audiovisuals supports are the future, and Tierry's hand is the past. What a pity!
- Miquel, València, Valencian Country
Maybe FIFA officials should visit Croke Park on any day there is a GAA football or Hurling match. No video replays, but an umpire at each goal post. Umpires are allowed to draw any irregularities to the refs attention. It works for these sports why not for soccer. Some people may say there are more important things in life than winning a football match and that's true, but there is serious money involved in football paid by the fans who would like to see Fair Play, something FIFA endorse at every ground. It's time they took the responsibility to significantly reduce the chances of players bringing the game into disrepute.
- Dermot Mclaughlin, Lurgan Co-Armagh
no doubt the irish will fully support england now! :o)
- Mad David, LONDON
Probably more so than the Scots will!
- Emma, London
Oh do give it a rest, these complaints are hypocritical to say the least.
As even Roy Keane has highlighted, Ireland were awarded a ridiculous penalty against Georgia earlier in the campaign & they went on to win the game by a single goal which ultimately helped them to the playoffs.
Did the Irish players act with integrity & honesty at that point? Did they tell the ref it wasn't really a penalty? Did the Irish FA offer to replay the game? Did the Irish media & fans get upset that they won in dubious circumstances? Of course not. It was a mistake by an official same as this one which swung the game & thems the breaks - sometimes you get them sometimes you don't.
All this event highlights is the farcical laughing stock FIFA have allowed football to become by mystifyingly refusing to employ simple technology which could eliminate these scenarios in seconds.
That's the only story here - until that state of play is rectified, referees & linos will continue to make mistakes which sometimes benefit teams, sometimes penalise them, sometimes to little effect, sometimes with huge consequenses.
- Gp, London
Please watch this video. It shows how cynical irish authorities can be. The incident you are about to witness occurred during a football match between Ireland and Georgia.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jf9fx4ipF4Q&feature=player_embedded#
- Jean93500, Paris, France
As we expected, all the Arsenal fans on here defending the obnoxious Henry. What a sad bunch.
- James Hennessy, Manchester England
Frank, Home Counties
Still showing your ignorant little Englander attitude to every thing. What a bitter and twisted little man you are.
- James Hennessy, Manchester England
Perhaps we can look forward to a little understanding from Ireland over the "Hand of God" now that they've suffered the "Hand of Frog" ?
Henry should be banned from international football for life; Anything less justifies everyone else cheating.
If the French team have any dignity they'll withdraw from the tournament.
- Stew, London
Its called the "Rub of the Green". In this case it went to France, in other cases it went our way. Its only a game, one that had an extremly disappointing and frustrating end, but GET OVER IT.
- Fintan, Clones - Ireland
He was always a cocky so and so
- Professor David Marsland, Reading, UK
I just saw the incident on a TV re-run. My God... TThat really is utterly disgraceful. Anyone who says otherwise is a complete fool. Simple as that.
- Jethro Penzance, Bodmin
no doubt the irish will fully support england now! :o)
- Mad David, LONDON
Do we need any more reasons to dump the EU, if they cheat at football where will they stop?
- Vince London, West London
There is no dilemma for Henry,he knows he can make statements about re-playing the match,with the certain knowledge that it will never happen,it just makes him look better
- Bob Hawkins, Beckenham
Football really should take a leaf out of the Rugby Union rulebook, and introduce video referees at major fixtures. Yes, I know play can't stop for the video ref, but it is already stopped at the most important moments: when the ball is in the back of the net, and when the ref has blown for a penalty or free kick of doubtful merit.
- Nigel, London
There should be no room for debate. Henri cheated, was aware of what he did, and his team benefited at the expense of the other team. All other debates are ancillary. He has brought shame on himself and unfortunately his team, his country and the game of football. These are the consequences of cheating.
- Mikki, London
Henry behaved like a typical Gooner but the Irish need to stop whining.
- St, London
As a result of this outrage, I wonder what the result of the Irish vote on the Lisbon treaty would be if the vote had yet to take place 
- Mark H, London England
Looking at it from a neutral perspective, how would Henry 'own up' to what he did? I listened to his radio confession and it is clear that he acknowledges what he did.It is the ref's responsibility to be the overseer of players actions. Players have a moral duty to do the right thing, it is Fifa's responsibility now to step in to salvage the image of the sport.
Henry has won everything in the past through hard work and honesty - World Cup, Champion's League, F.A. Cups, Premiership medals. This will not tarnish his image...Robbie Keane has to accept some responsibility as well.
Whether or not he suffers financially is irrespective, the game has suffered because of inadvertence of its officals.
- Henry, London
How many Irish laughed at England when the same thing happened to us through Maradonna. No sympathy, what goes around comes around.
- Frank, Home Counties, England.
I'm gutted i think its awful that the ref called a goal and didn't see the handball. But i think facebook pages like this should be taken down. This represents a bunch of muppets who probably don't watch much football jumping on the band wagon. Get over it FIFA won't fix the problems at the heart of the matter so they certainly won't give us a replay. But don't racially abuse people because of it. Henry is a great player and is a gentleman. Robbie keane would of done the same no doubt in my mind. Move on Ireland, we weren;t that good in the first leg so we should of won it at home. Euros should be our focus next. The media is loving this...
- Paul, Dublin
We are gutted, we played really hard and that 'hand of God' deprived us of a penalty shootout. Shay Given our goalkeeper is one of the best in the world so who knows what would have happened. In 2002 we were playing to get into the quarter finals in Taipan, not bad for a country with just 4 millions people!!
- Laura, dublin
If Thierry was given a, say, four match ban for the World Cup for bringing the game into disrepute, which he has done, because it was deliberate, obviously, that would be fair as FIFA would be following their own rules. Also it would put down a marker.
- Billy Fulton+, groblersdal, south africa
I use my Gilette Mach 3 - and with one helpin hand, it can guide me properly every day.
- Ancient Wisdom, London, England
Football must be the only major televised sport that does not have a video referee system. With the amount of money now generated by this sport it is no longer appropriate to say that it is only a game. Whoever the geriatric admistrators are, get rid of them and modernise.
- Bj, East London
Would Robbie Keane have held his hand up if it was the other way round. no
will we see Robbie keane in future diving around and trying to get opponents booked and sent off, or will he now take the moral ground..No
Unfortunately it was missed by the ref and linesman, in the same way that Robbie Keane missed an easy goal when he went round the goalkeeper
- Rob, London
Try and watch any football game where the players don't "act" in some way to gain an advantage. They fall at the slightest touch for goodness sake. Its an silly but accepted part of the game. In the case of Henry he was clearly out of line and he admitted it. A rematch sounds like a good idea. In the meantime how about we knit-pick every other incident where players try to gain unfair advantages and see where that gets us.
- Jon, London, UK
If one were to argue that Ireland would have hardly won the the world cup, realise it is actually less likely that France can win it. Their team is a shambles, and Ireland would certainly put on a better show. Regardless, the replay shows Henry actually cupping the ball with his hand. There is no doubt that this was a deliberate movement, and he has brought shame to his counrty.
- Luke Pearson, Bristol
Lionelbart,
Whether England were outplayed in '86 or not makes no difference the score was nil-nil at the time and the best chance of the game to that point had fallen to Beardsley early in the first half.
All players cheat to a degree, so unless we use video technology it will always continue. What was interesting though, and somebody else made this point yesterday, was that when Zidane got sent off it was brought to the attention of the ref. by the forth official who watched it on a monitor!
Still as I've said before, it's not England so I don't care.
- Mark, South-East London
this is ridicolous. France benefited from a bad ref decision, however other bad decision were made in the game and benefited the Irish. If a player got a freekick or penalty when not actually fouled - would we expect them to own up...
we either have a sport where all players are 100% honest with the ref and immediately demand over-rule of bad decisions - or we continue as it is...
to demonise Henry is ridiculous can we really say that all other players would have walked up to the ref and demanded the goal was cancelled....
The intervention of the Irish Govt is a joke - the country is in a total mess following the Credit Crisis - the PM commenting on the match result is a little sad and makes him look very petty....
- Martin_Clerkenwell, london
Football must move with the times and immediately introduce a video referee. Such an important game and it has descended into farce. The concept of the video referee works perfectly in rugby league. Winning and losing margins in rugby are seldom the one single goal/point that is so common with football. With such slender winning margins, it is vital that all refereeing mistakes should be eliminated.
- Philip Soffer, St Kilda, Victoria, Australia
The man clearly has previous but finds it difficult to admit it.
Rewind to 27 May 2006. France v Spain in the World Cup, and Henry fell to the ground holding his face after colliding with a Spanish defender to win a free kick that led to a goal. At that time he was widely acknowledged to have cheated – there was no contact at all, let alone with his face.
The next day he was quoted as saying “in my head I’m not a guy who does go down or cheats”.
I remember googling “Thierry Henry play acting” at the time and got about 93,000 pages about how it was always he that was the victim of foul play.
As you say, if you are a brand that trades on trust it would be a bit unfortunate to be aligned with him.
Luckily for Henry this is football, and sportsmanship comes second to making money.
- Paul, London
Jerome, Its not the point whether Ireland would have won the world cup. The players have been trying extremely hard to qualify for a world cup and some of them will never get the chance again. We hammered the french in fairness and should have one by 2-3 goals. The fact that Henry has cheated and more importantly his blatent lieing after the game. Lets be honest the english have been going on about maradonna for 23 years and the difference between that and Ireland is that england were outplayed and well beaten by Argentina handball or not.
- Lionelbart, Derry Ireland
I agree there should be a replay however Thierry Henry claims he immediately told the Referee that it was handball, which if true, surely indicates that he is not a deliberate cheat trying to gain an advantage? Only he can ever know if he did so deliberately in the first place, the rest is just speculation?
- Philip Booker, Brighton
The more you look at this incident, it is clear Henry palmed the ball, rather than the ball accidentally hitting his hand. I doubt very much that there will be a replay; but there maybe some justice in that any future sponsorship deals are dead in the water. It was just plain cheating and if Henry is charged by FIFA, as he should be, I hope they ban him from playing in all World Cup matches.
- Brian G, Norfolk Gorleston
It's only a game. It happens all the time. It's not as if Ireland were likely to win the world cup.
- Joyce Jerome, Greater London
To preserve his Mr Clean image there has to be a replay. And the rules changed with instant TV replay evidence allowed in.
- Dhan Raj, Basildon
A gentleman player would have immediately confessed to the handball and alerted the referee. His weakness in this regard is going to cost him £15m. Bad form, trying to get away with a clear mistake without fessing up.
- Neil, London, London UK
