EXCLUSIVE | Richard Dunne on Thierry Henry’s handball: ‘Any one of us would have done the exact same thing.’ | OneFootball

Former Republic of Ireland, Everton FC and Manchester City FC defender Richard Dunne spoke exclusively to Get French Football News about the infamous World Cup play-off between France and Ireland in 2009 and about Irish footballing connections with France today. In this first part, we dared to ask Richard about that handball…

Of all the Irish players involved in the Thierry Henry handball, you’re probably the one most associated with the incident, just because Henry was pictured sitting chatting to you after the match. What did he say to you and what did you know at the time he spoke to you?

I hadn’t seen the handball because I had jumped up for the initial header and then when the ball landed I had my back to play. But I’d obviously seen the reaction of my teammates, like Shay Given and Kevin Kilbane, players who had seen it, chasing after the referee. But obviously the play unfolded, they got the goal and then there was anger from the players, from everyone involved.

Then at the end of the game, for me it was more of a case of our opportunity having gone. We’d played extra time, we’d had the first leg a few days beforehand, so physically we were drained, we were tired and it was just a case of sitting down and taking a breather, really. So when he came over and sat next to me I didn’t really take any notice, it didn’t really mean anything to me.

But then he said “yeah, I did handle it” and for me it was like well there’s no point telling me, it doesn’t matter to me anymore – if you feel guilty about it you should have told the ref 20 minutes ago.

So he was honest enough to say “I handled it”. And you can think “ah that’s sh*t” or whatever. But the more the time goes by and you sit down and think about it, you think “I probably would have done the same”. It’s part of the game and you try to get an advantage over your opponent and you see it all the time now with players flying all over the place diving and cheating. And Henry took advantage. It was down to the referees to see it and they didn’t.

So like I say, any one of us Irish players would have done the exact same thing if we knew we could have got away with it. So I don’t hold any grudges or anything like that. If I do, it’s for the referees who are more accountable because they just didn’t see it.

I remember, after France’s famous mutiny and strike during the 2010 World Cup, seeing an interview with [Irish comedian] Dara Ó Briain where he was asked whether it was a consolation that France did so badly, and he said no, he’d have almost preferred it if they had won the World Cup so that at least he could console himself with losing to the best team in the world, whereas the fact that they were so bad and disrespectful to the competition almost made it worse. Do you understand that feeling?

That’s the regret I suppose. That they [France] probably got to the World Cup unfairly, and then they didn’t treat the competition and the opportunity that they had with enough respect. We would have given anything to be there, to go and play in the World Cup. We had a really good side at that time, everyone was in good form, everyone was at a good age, and we were capable of going to a World Cup and competing. So for the team that got there instead of us to completely implode, to fight over nonsense stuff, to not respect the tournament, I felt was really disappointing.

I probably wouldn’t have wished that they’d gone on and won it! But I wouldn’t have been annoyed if they’d just gone out, played their games and whatever happen happens – they win it or they don’t win it. But the way they behaved – selfishly and disrespecting the tournament – I thought was really poor.

Richard Dunne was speaking exclusively to Get French Football News courtesy of BetVictor Online Casino

GFFN | Jeremy Smith