If ever there was compelling evidence that the law is an ass it is this….
Article 77a of Fifa Disciplinary Code states that the disciplinary committee is responsible for “sanctioning serious infringements which have escaped the match officials’ attention”. Henry’s handball clearly escaped the attention of Hansson and his assistants, yet it could not be described as “serious”a term which is defined in Article 47 of the code and which incidentally covers handballs intended to prevent a goal, but not those involved in creating one.Hence Henry gets off scott free and FIFA’s official statement on the issue reads..
“The disciplinary committee reached the conclusion that there was no legal foundation for the committee to consider the case because handling the ball cannot be regarded as a serious infringement as stipulated in article 77a of the Fifa disciplinary code. There is no other legal text that would allow the committee to impose sanctions for any incidents missed by match officials.”
The moral of the story (which has remain unchanged since Maradona’s famous hand of god goal) is “if you can get away with itgo ahead”

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