Inside Track: Joe, Diego and Thierry weren’t the wrong ones

Given the type of money that’s been paid for what was central to the ‘Hand of God’ saga, there could be a fair few quid in it for whoever got their hands on the ‘leather’ 16 years ago. (God forbid Martin Sludden held on to it after he’d blown the final whistle.)

Same goes to the football Thierry Henry handled in the Republic of Ireland’s World Cup qualifier with France, in 2009.

And though it might not command as big a price as any of those above, there would surely be some Louth supporters who’d want to go high for the ball Sam Mulroy steered to the net to give Louth senior footballers a famous championship win over Armagh this summer.

The ball Diego Maradona punched to the net in Argentina’s defeat of England in the 1986 World Cup finals in Mexico had an €8.5 million placed on it when it went up for auction in America recently.

Its sale price fell way below that, changing hands for €2.87m. A nice price, nonetheless, better than it was sold for when first going on the market.

Match referee, Tunisia’s Ali Bin Nasser, clever man, held on to the ball after blowing full-time and kept it for three decades before deciding to sell it. He ended up €2m the richer.

While much has been made of this Maradona goal, very little is heard of the other one he scored in the same game, his contribution dumping England out of the competition before his Argentina went on to win the title.

This one was pure genius, Maradona skipping his way past several defenders before beating Peter Shilton at close range.

Recalling the controversy, Maradona, who died at the age of 60 six years ago, said his first goal was scored “a little with the head and a little with the hand of God”.

Whatever the England players thought of it – and they protested vigorously – there were handshakes all round after the game. Steve Hodge, another clever man, went further – he exchanged jerseys with Maradona.

The jersey was put up for auction four years ago, and the price it accrued put the ball in the penny-hae’penny place. If he was the one who still owned it, Hodge got a handsome €6.1m.

Just think about it, if Mr Bin Nasser had been doing his job properly, the goal would have been disallowed, and the incident never heard of again.

And England might have won and, after that, taken the title, and in the process closing a 20-year gap since they had last won it. That gap now stands at 60 years, and counting.

And talk about gaps – and there’s been a lot of it here this year and last. In 2010, Louth were appearing in a Leinster final for the first time in half a century.

They’d have closed it – instead of having to wait for another 15 years – had Mr Sludden, like Mr Bin Nasser, been doing his job.

Same goes for Mr Martin Hansson. He was in charge of the Ireland/France match, and like Mr Bin Nasser, missed out on the match-deciding incident.

Henry kept the ball in play with his hand before passing to William Gallas, whose equaliser ruined Ireland’s chance of a place in the 2010 finals.

The game ended in a 1-1 draw, but having won the first leg 2-1 – it was played in Croke Park – France went through to the 2010 finals.

They didn’t do much good when they got to South Africa. Defeats by Mexico and the host nation had them dumped from the competition before the knockouts were reached.