Hypocrites, hypocrites! Attack FIFA, not Henry!

The media got Eduardo banned for a penalty he should never have been given. Now Ireland wants a replay for a game they unfairly lost in extra time. Overnight, a player who has been very clean his entire career is being branded the world's biggest cheat.

The case against the Irish goal is clear as day. That goal was a disgraceful refereeing decision. Full stop.

Henry handled the ball and continued to play by flicking over to Gallas. All of that took less than a second. It was instinctive and wrong. No excuses for Henry.

Today, Henry is being judged on two dimensions. First he is being judged as a cheat. This is the first time I have seen Henry do something like this. I have never even seen Henry dive for a penalty or waved an imaginary card for an opponent. Henry ran to celebrate the goal instead of running straight to the referee to confess that it was not a penalty. That is cheating because he knew it was wrong. It cannot be defended. It was not a mistake. Thierry knew it was a handball and celebrated before telling the truth a few moments later, so he intended for it to stand and that is cheating. I still find it hard to call him a cheat given his record but that was cheating.

Then Henry is being called a liar. That is for people who just want to find reason to destroy a player. Henry admitted it was a handball but apparently, he is liar and scumbag because he said it was not deliberate. Nobody can judge that. It happened over less than 1 second. To me it was instinctive more than pre-judged. I have handballed many times without thinking about it. I have seen premiership and professional players try to stop a ball that is going above their heads with their hand without thinking about it. I have seen Pirlo do it while he was already on a yellow card in a totally harmless position on the pitch with AC Milan leading 2-0. Attacking Henry for that as some kind of justification is a nonsense. It was a handball. Whether it was deliberate or not doesn't matter. If it was a tackle, intent matters.

Now we have a media that is creating a world spinning fuss about this. It is heartbreaking for Ireland and it was heartbreaking for Rangers when Eduardo got a penalty but it happens just about every single match day. When English players dive, nobody cares. They call it "went down easily", "soft penalty" or in extreme cases "deceived the referee". Owen, Gerrard, Rooney, Shearer are just a few players who have deceived the referee. None of them get called a cheat. No drums are beaten for bans or for match replays. Had Robbie Keane handled that ball last night, it would have died from the news by now.

It is hypocritical.

There is only one solution to diving or cheating. Video replays. We judge players fairly and unfairly and criticize referees fairly and unfairly when sometimes it is impossible for them to even see some of the incident. FIFA and UEFA are going forward with lousy half-baked solutions like 5 referees. It helps to see a few more things but it will not solve problems that happen so fast that only the player can tell you what was going on.

Get on FIFA's back not Henry's. At some point we have to realise that like the bankers who got us into the credit crunch, people will do things if they can get away with it. If they know they won't get away with it, only the foolish will continue. A player who knows that if he is not caught by the referee, he will 100% be caught on video will not cheat unless he is stupid ... and then he will be caught anyway.

This is the best opportunity to get FIFA to do the right thing. And we should stop acting as if it this is the only time someone has handled the ball and scored since Maradona.

Anyhow, just what should a player do when he realises that something he did instinctively led to the wrong decision? According to Henry, he told the referee and the referee replied "you are not the referee". Arshavin was awarded a penalty and he indicated to the referee that it was not a penalty but the referee gave it anyway. Paolo DiCanio kicked the ball out for a goal kick when he was faced with the same situation. Had he scored the goal and gone back to the referee to say it was unfair, the referee would not have been able to do anything about it. Wenger had to offer a game to Sheffield when Arsenal scored in an FA cup game unfairly. It had to be debated for the game to be accepted. The FA had no right to demand a replay.

The issue of cheating and unfairness in football touches a lot of the rules of the game. You cannot tackle it with half measures, the media and cherry picking which nationalities to call cheats.

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