Cheats prosper without video ref

TEAMtalk explains how in one split second France forward Thierry Henry managed what has eluded politicians down the ages. He united Ireland.

"Robbed!" Cheated!" "Disgrace!" The airwaves were in meltdown as Mr Angrys from North and South and all over Great Britain, too, spoke with one voice in condemnation of the Henry handball which denied Robbie Keane and his Republic of Ireland team a place at the World Cup party in South Africa.

There were calls for the match against France to be replayed. Conspiracy theories suggested football's authorities would be delighted one of the game's great powers had qualified at the expense of one of its minnows.

And, of course, the inevitable demands for television technology to be embraced to rule on decisions in the world's most popular game, just as it has been in every meaningful sport from tennis to rugby to snooker.

Then a squeaky voice belonging to former Irish captain Ronnie Whelan cut through all the holier-than-thou outrage to reveal exactly why football has gone to hell in a handcart.

"As a pro footballer, believe me you're going to do the same thing and try to get away with it," Whelan admitted.

In other words given the chance an Irish hand would have cheated in exactly the same way as Henry.

With that knowledge - and Whelan knows football as well as most - I suspect the queue to jump on the Mr Angry bandwagon would not have been quite as long.

The problem is that 'professional' in football no longer stands for someone who gets paid for a rare talent.

Too often it stands for someone prepared to lie, to maim, to cheat. Someone prepared to do just about anything in or outside the laws to win.

Former Arsenal striker Alan Smith as good as admitted as much recently when he excused Liverpool striker David Ngog's blatant dive at Anfield as an act of "professionalism".

Of course it was worse because it was Henry, a player renowned for his intelligence and charm and, we thought, his spirit of fair play. A player of squeaky-clean reputation who arguably had done more than any other to enhance football in his time in the Premier League.

To learn he was just like the rest, a cheat among cheats, was the most sickening aspect of the whole incident.

"Yes, there is a handball but I am not the referee," was Henry's verdict.

Good try Thierry, but that is a bit like MPs ripping off their expenses for years and blaming their accountants.

The point is you cannot always blame the referee. They are human. They make mistakes. Honest mistakes. But they have no chance when footballers deliberately seek to hoodwink them.

Which brings us back to the Mr Angrys screaming for video technology.

I used to be against it for football. The beauty of the game lies in its fluidity. Football builds tempo and rhythm and momentum like no other game.

It is an end-to-end sport. One moment a team are defending a corner desperately, eight or nine seconds later they could be rippling the net at the other end.

But referees, derided by managers, harangued by players and abused by fans on a weekly basis, need help.

No longer routinely should they be held responsible for costing clubs millions and coaches their jobs for a snap decision, made in good faith but later proved to be wrong. Not when there is a tried and tested alternative.

The third umpire. Hawkeye. The video referee. They have all become respected tools of cricket, tennis and rugby. All have enhanced their sports, adding to the drama.

Not least the four minutes it took to unravel whether England rugby wing Mark Cueto had scored a try in the 2007 World Cup final, ironically in the same Stade de France. The naked eye said yes, painstaking video analysis proved his foot had brushed the touchline and the try was disallowed.

England lost, but it was worth the wait because justice was done.

This is what FIFA and UEFA must do. Watch Maradona's 'Hand of God' in 1986. Watch Henry's hand of 2009 take France to next summer's World Cup finals.

And then decide. Do they want a sport based on fair play and justice or one in which the cheats prosper?

It was not just Henry's reputation which was stained on Wednesday night in Paris. It was football's.