Here is an extract from my article from today's The First Post.
It was perhaps the most blatant act of cheating in an important international football match since Diego Maradona's infamous 'Hand of God' knocked England out of the World Cup in 1986.
French striker Thierry Henry openly admits that he handled the ball in the move which led to his country's decisive goal in last night's World Cup qualifier with the Republic of Ireland.
But his attempt to pass responsibility on to the referee - who was unsighted - is unlikely to assuage the anger and sense of outrage felt by Republic of Ireland players and supporters, whose team misses out on next year's World Cup finals in South Africa as a result.
A 'We Irish Hate Thierry Henry the Cheat' Facebook page has already been set up: by 9am this morning, it had over 22,000 fans. "We got robbed. It's cost a lot of us our dreams - as a boy I used to dream of playing in the World Cup, and now I'm not," bemoaned Irish defender Sean St Ledger.
It's not the first time that Henry, once the pride of Arsenal, now with Barcelona, has attempted to gain an unfair advantage at a vital stage of an international match.
You can read the whole of the article - and what we can do to make sure that cheats like Henry don’t prosper-here.
UPDATE: Gavin McDonald has written in asking me to publicise a petition he has organised calling for Thierry Henry to be banned from playing in next year's World Cup.
Here's the link, please consider giving it your support.
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