The furore surrounding Thierry Henry’s handball in the lead-up to France’s winning goal against the Irish has re-opened the debate of what players should do to secure a win.

Blimey, what has Thierry Henry started? The once-charming car-selling Frenchman has caused outrage in (most of) the footballing world after his sleight of hand helped his country clinch their spot in next year’s World Cup.

OK, there’s no getting away from it – he did use his hand and at least he’s been big enough to own up to it (although given the stacks of visual evidence against him, he’d have been a fool not to have done), but the calls for a replay from the Irish FA are laughable, if understandable.

Unfortunately, I’m not really old enough to remember the reaction following the original Hand of God, but I do know that there was certainly no replay granted to Bobby Robson’s cruelly robbed England. And although the Hand of Henry occurred in a more technologically advanced era, where there is no doubt of his crime, the over-riding law of football in these matters is “what happens on the pitch, stays on the pitch”.

No doubt, the referee will face some kind of wrist-slap or sanctions against him for missing the incident (or a pat on the back from UEFA head honcho Michel Platini), but calls for the Barca star to miss the start of the World Cup are just as ludicrous as the assertion from the Republic’s assistant manager, Liam Brady, that a replay should be staged.

THE FINGER OF BLAME

Now, while Henry could have avoided this scenario by just playing fairly, I feel it’s the size of the prize at stake and the state of the modern game that has just as much – if not more – responsibility laid at its door.

The constant desire for players – particularly in the UK game – to win at all costs, married to the financial rewards associated with success means players will push the boundaries further. After all, the worst that would have happened to Henry if the referee had spotted it would probably have been a yellow card – the risk versus reward ratio just doesn’t tally.

It’s interesting that the Irish players – including Richard Dunne and Damien Duff – were quick to absolve Henry of any blame, and instead directed their wrath at the referee. This, I think, showed that the Irish pair are clearly shrewd enough to accept that if it had been their own captain, Robbie Keane, stuck in a similar position, they’d be pretty much imploring him to do what it takes to keep the ball in – fairly or otherwise.

LET SLEEPING DOGS LIE

I must say that the strength of the outrage has surprised me, with the BBC even having a live update of reaction from around the world to the incident, but it seems that it’s been blown out of proportion.

As someone who has seen his own team suffer from an appalling refereeing decision that would have been cleaned up by a video replay, I have every sympathy with the Irish, but, alas, the moment has passed and Henry will have to live with the fact he’ll probably never be able to take a trip to the Guinness factory, while the Irish will have to face another World Cup-less summer.

Not often I’ve said this, but I think a French politician sums it up best. Referring to the incident, Philippe De Villiers – a French MEP – said: “The moral of this match is that you can cheat as long as you don’t get caught.”

He added: “The France team is going to be labelled for years as a team of cheats.”