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touchline
The journal of spor t & r isk with an international perspective
Issue 5
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So the luck of the Irish finally ran out
with the hand of Henry.
The incident which led to the French
goal in extra-time has been hotly
debated around the world. Henry
confessed to using his arm to control
the ball before teammate Gallas
scored. Within hours, the web was
flooded with comments mocking the
French striker for his blatant cheating.
The Irish Justice Minister demanded a
rematch and other commentators said
that the French team should be thrown
out of the World Cup finals and the
match awarded to Ireland.
But of course this is not the first time
that cheating has meant that the guilty
person or team have benefited from
the action. We like to think that sport
was about integrity, fair play, pride in
achievement, a drive to improve and
the chance to compete against your
peers with the best winning out. We
therefore rightly react with anger and
disgust when we see those who we
may hold up as role models behaving
in this way - particularly when our
team are on the receiving end!
There are those who are prepared to go
to any lengths to win, even if it means
moving the goalposts – literally! In this
edition we report on Kim Christensen,
the IFK Gothenburg goalkeeper,
caught on camera kicking in both sides
of the goalframe to reduce its size at
the start of a Swedish football match.
He admitted that this was not the first
time he had moved the goalposts “I
got the tip from a goalkeeping friend a
few years ago, and since then I have
done it from time to time”.
We tend to think that this is a modern
phenomenon, but unfortunately
cheating is as old as sport itself. The
1919 Black Sox scandal is a famous
example of athletes throwing a contest.
The 1919 World Series pitted the
favourites Chicaco White Sox against
the Cincinnati Reds. Rumours of the
Steve Boucher
touchline@sportscover.com
– but try telling the Irish that!!
series being fixed were rampant before
the match, which caused an influx of
money to come in betting for the Reds.
The rumours were true, and eight
members of the White Sox conspired
to throw the series. All eight players
were eventually banned for life.
The Olympics have a long history of
athletes using drugs, but it all came to
a head in the 80’s with Ben Johnson
being stripped of his gold medal
that he won in the 100m sprint. The
scandal was particularly devastating
for Canada, who latched onto Ben
Johnson with excitement and national
pride, only to be gutted two days later
when it was revealed that Johnson had
been using drugs.
One of the most famous cheats in sports
history was Maradona’s “hand of God”
goal in the 1986 World Cup quarter-
final between England and Argentina.
Maradona punched the ball into the
goal with his left hand. After the game
and the 2-1 Argentinian victory came
Maradona’s famous quote claiming
that the goal was scored a little with
the head of Maradona and a little with
the hand of God. Argentina went on
to win the World Cup, only increasing
the significance of the wrongly allowed
goal.
So, whilst most of us will feel a great
deal of sympathy with the Irish,
unfortunately they were not the first
and certainly won’t be the last to be
defeated by cheating. And who says
cheats never prosper!
January 2010
Cheats never prosper
Contents
Cover image:
Hurling
Photo by Kieran O’Shaughnessy
