Henry Gives France A Helping Hand

There are fewer big sporting stories around this morning than Thierry Henry’s France qualifying for the FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa next summer. I watched the game live on Sky while monitoring the real time feed coming from Twitter (this is turning into my favourite pastime, I do it with X Factor and I’m A Celebrity as well, it adds an extra dimension to the shows).

Ireland courageously took the game to France in their own backyard and really should have won the match if they hadn’t squandered their chances. As it was, the game was fast approaching penalties when Thierry Henry controlled the ball with his hand before setting-up Gallas for the crucial equaliser and ultimately sending France through 2 – 1 on aggregrate.

Henry has since admitted that, yes the ball hit his hand as he said, “The ball hit my hand and, I will be honest, the ball hit my hand. It was a handball!” But then goes onto say, “I know, the ball hit my arm, I played it, and the ref allowed it.”

No Henry, the ball did NOT hit your arm, you blatantly stopped the ball from going out by palming the ball then used your hand again to redirect the ball into a better position for you to pass to your teammate. If I was a watching NBA scout I’d be highly impressed.

But the referee nor the lineside officials never saw it – so that makes it ok in Henry’s eyes, heck it makes it ok in any professional footballers eyes – you know why? Because they all do it, they are all guilty at some point in their careers of cheating to win a decision or a game. Not only that – they are taught to “win at all costs”.

Which begs the question. Is sportsmanship dead in professional football? Remember, these players are role models to millions of kids – what messages do they send out – it’s ok to cheat as long as you get away with it.

Let’s play Devils Advocate here for a second. If an Ireland player had handled the ball in the manner that Henry did and won the game – I’d bet they would have accepted the goal and not a quibble would have been heard from any of the players, coaching staff or the Irish Association.

Now, FIFA, has egg on its face, “Fair Play” they shout from every advertising board. How can you play fair and be honest when the game is so rife with cheating from the top to the bottom. Professional Football reached a new low in Paris last night and everyone that makes a living from the sport should hang their heads in shame.