In the cold light of day...

I can't rationalise it, and believe me, I've tried. Thierry Henry is a legend to Arsenal fans. Most people also rated him because he seemed to be one of the good guys. He didn't dive or ponce around like Cristiano Ronaldo, or harangue referees, veins bulging and spit hanging off his lips.

Last night was a bit topsy-turvy emotionally. You want to on one hand condemn Henry. Ireland were great on the night and probably deserved to go through. France despite its stars have been poor these past couple of years. On the other hand, the outcry has seen people defend Henry, if not his actions. So basically, last night was sadness over Henry, pity and disappointment for the Irish, anger and disbelief over the hysterical reaction of the British/Irish press and media.

Henry has admitted it was a handball. Handball mind you is a foul and it's up to the referee and his assistants to have called it. Incidentally, how does one end up a linesman anyway? Are linesmen basically the people too crap to be refs?

Fouls get given sometimes and sometimes they don't; at both ends of the pitch. Just recently, Jamie Carragher escaped a sending off when he rugby tackled Micheal Owen. The next week, against Fulham, he wasn't so lucky. To call Henry a cheat is disingenuous because what he did is no different from if it was a corner or free kick and he gained an advantage by fouling his marker. Would people be calling him a cheat if his flick across goal had been preceded, not by handball, but by an almighty tussle whereby the Irish defender was left on the ground. I don't think so. They would have, and have always blamed the referee for now seeing it. So why is this different?

It's not even like a dive. A dive aims to con the referee. This is more akin to a cynical tackle on a person who's left you for dead with a turn of pace. This was a blatant handball, its the kind of foul that when caught usually leaves the perpatrator with an embarassed smile. The brain shuts down and the hand instinctively reaches out to control or smack the ball away.

Of course, the moral police on Sky were incadescent with rage that johnny foreigner had once again conspired to keep out the Irish. Tony Cascarino was almost laughable saying that Henry should have said it was handball. Why? Who does that? The hypocrisy is outstanding coming from a man who represented Ireland 88 times when he is about as Irish as I am.

Nobody would admit to a foul in the buildup to a goal or a foul when scoring a goal. If people did, it wouldn't be news when they did. Or is Henry the first person to set up a goal in controversial circumstances or even score one.

Meanwhile, what is lost in the noise is that Ireland lost the first leg at home and were not ahead at anytime in the match. Who's to say that they wouldn't have gone out on penalties, or that France wouldn't have scored? It would be nice if the French agreed to an unprecedented replay, which would then be conclusively and emphatically won by one team, so that we can avoid decades of Irish bleating but alas this is not to be.

What this shows though is that it is necessary for huge reforms to be done with refereeing. Fifa and Uefas antipathy towards video technology is almost manic but the fact remains that something must be done. It is almost laughable that bad calls or no calls go unpunished. Technology is becoming a part of refreeing in other sports but yet football continues to seemingly revel in the fact that there is human error and that it plays such a big role in officiating. It is no longer cute, rather it is like an eccentric foible in a loved one that has lost its harmlessness.

As for Henry, the Irish would like to think that he is an international pariah, just like some deluded English people believe that Maradona is seen as a cheat worldwide. Well Maradona was a cheat. He dived, retaliated on the pitch, tested positive for banned substances and yet he is still seen as a legend worldwide. Henry hasn't evén done half of that, and I'm willing to be that nobody outside Ireland will care about this cum the world cup.