I couldn't believe my eyes when Henry wheeled away last night and celebrated like he'd just done something fantastic.
Short of dribbling the ball through his legs like Meadowlark Lemon, he couldn't have been more blatant.
All this interminable guff about 'it being part of the game' and 'one of those things' is just a red herring to indemnify cheats against future misdemeanours.
Henry cheated. Ireland were denied at least the chance of going to South Africa, as they may well have made it to a penalty shoot-out.
So, morally, they at least deserve the chance to see whether they would have made it.
If this is the way qualification for major tournaments is to be decided, then let's just see who can provide the ref with the biggest bribe and forget about the match. This way we could all plan a little better without the distraction of a football match.
My nephew said to me today that it was what made football the talking point and the exciting spectacle that it is. I disagree.
What would you prefer to see: Argentina passing the ball 39 times and scoring a goal of exquisite skill, or Maradona handballing it into an unguarded net?
Would you prefer to see Geoff Hurst's goal that never went over the line? Or Owen scoring against Argentina in '98?
An offside is controversial. A contested free-kick is controversial. A goal scored through cheating or a referee decision so poor it costs a team the match is unacceptable: when technology exists to ascertain within seconds whether a ball crossed a line or a player dived like he was an extra in Platoon.
In tennis, a much faster and more physically demanding game than football, challenges don't kill the excitement, they add to it.
In rugby union, video judges don't kill the excitement, they add to it. Ditto for rugby league.
I heard someone on Radio 5 mention the 'Hackney Marshes argument' today. This premise says that if you have video at major matches then those playing at a lower level are disadvantaged. Rubbish!
It works in tennis, rugby, American football, cricket, the list is endless.
How can Alex Ferguson be banned from the touchline for commenting on a fat referee but Henry can continue to ply his trade without censure after getting his country to the World Cup through cheating? Did the FA look at video of Ferguson's comments? So why can they not look at Henry's actions?
The notion that football is corrupt will bankrupt the game if that is the fans' perception. Crowds in Italy nosedived tremendously on the back of all the bribing and match fixing scandals there.
Teachers' unions in France have castigated Henry for his conduct, after he admitted what he'd done. Not that we were in any doubt from the first moment he cupped the ball in his hand.
Will Henry tell his children to do play like this? If he will, he is a poor human being with little or no decency. If he wouldn't tell his kids to act in such a way, then his actions last night and since prove him to be a hypocrite. There is no hiding place for him. He's damned either way.
The smirking little Frenchman, and I mean that in intellect not physical stature, can now never be viewed as a great of the game. In much the same way as his countryman Zidane blotted his copybook during his finest hour, Henry has consigned himself to history as a cheat. I'm sure he's proud. He is the Maradona for a new generation.
If Fifa could live by the rules of fair play they advertise, Henry would be banned from the World Cup in South Africa, so that he would not profit personally from his ill-gotten gains.
If FIFA had any balls at all, they would order a replay, or even a penalty shoot-out behind closed doors at a neutral venue.
From the moment FIFA changed the rules and said the play-offs were seeded, surely a design intended to disadvantage smaller nations and keep larger ones apart, this was weighted against teams like Ireland.
Platini has been strangely mute since the Henry incident, yet was extremely vocal about simulation recently. Perhaps simulating kicking the ball by cupping it with your hand is less damaging for the game. Only Platini knows why he has lost his tongue.
So whilst Frenchman David Ngog, who dived so incredibly against Birmingham recently, gets admiring glances from Tom Daley, Henry courts NBA scouts for his hand eye coordination and FIFA, UEFA and Arsene suffer concurrent myopia, the game goes to hell in a handcart.
What message are we sending kids if we allow this to go unpunished via a dubious 'technical' justification.
It may be in the rules that the referee's decision is final but they change that rule when it suits politically. Furthermore, did Henry not bring the game into disrepute with such blatant sleight of hand?
Ban him. Keep him away from the World Cup, or give Ireland the chance they deserve to make amends.
The beautiful game has tottered home in its party dress today and it looks for all the world like the slut it is. Let's hope Thierry Henry's kids didn't see him skulking home in last night's clothes.
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