Soccer hit by several scandals at same time

TALKING SPORTS

What's happening to soccer? One of my heroes, Thierry Henry, who I admired so much when he was playing for Arsenal, is being compared to Diego Maradona as a handball cheat. Europe has also been hit by a big match-fixing scandal.

In addition to these sad incidents we hear that Fifa are adamant there will not be a replay of the France-Republic of Ireland World Cup qualifier.

That is not good for the future of the sport. When Sepp Blatter took over as Fifa president from Joao Havelange, I thought he would do a lot for football because of his experience and amiable qualities.

But now the game has taken a nose-dive.

That's what I feel about the present state of the game, its administration and the many scandals which have broken out.

Tarnished by allegations and scandals, it may not continue to enjoy the same popularity for long.

Look at the France v Republic of Ireland match. The most sensible course of action for Fifa would have been to replay the game but Blatter and his team thought otherwise.

They believe more officials should be placed in charge of the World Cup in South Africa next year and other precautions should be taken to ensure similar incidents don't happen again.

Which means they have admitted that a mistake has been made, but they don't want to remedy the error.

Come on Mr Blatter. The whole world saw that the goal was scored after Henry handled the ball. The incident was replayed many times on television and newspapers carried pictures of it.

Henry himself has called for a replay, but you claim that the result should stand.

Is that fair? Who will ever support France? How will Henry go onto the football field and play, knowing very well that he was the culprit of scoring a so-called winning goal which should never have been allowed.

Referee Martin Hansson will feel guilty. Fingers will be pointed at him too for the grave mistake that was made when he was in charge of the game.

I am sure the whole world of soccer will agree that a replay is the best course of action for Fifa.

Justice should not only be done, it should appear to be done.

What has happened to European football, which is followed by millions? It has been hard hit by one of the biggest match-fixing scandals, and according to Guardian writer Owen Gibson and CNN, some 200 games across nine countries have been implicated.

That is a terrible tragedy for the sport.

Players have been implicated and many arrests have taken place.

The German police claim that it is only the tip of the iceberg.

Many in our part of the world not only follow soccer, but place bets on matches.

I know a friend outside Thailand who places bets every week on games. Similarly there are others who follow European soccer as they do the Premier League games in England.

Fortunately none of the affected leagues are in Britain, France, Spain or Italy.

Among the games believed to be manipulated are those in the Champions League and Europa League. The high profile matches took place in the top division of the Turkish League.

It is reported that millions of euros are involved.

The Uefa has claimed that 40 matches in its own competitions are under suspicion.

In 2005 German referee Robert Hoyzer was convicted for fraud.

Which adds up to the fact that soccer is being tarnished in many places. That is a sad reflection on the sport.