The damnation of Thierry Daniel Henry......

"I will be honest, it was a handball. But I'm not the ref. I played it, the ref allowed it. That's a question you should ask him."
Thierry Henry

Both Fifa and the French Football Federation have rejected the Football Association of Ireland's request for a replay of the controversial World Cup play-off between France and the Republic of Ireland,
The Republic of Ireland were beaten 2-1 on aggregate after France triumphed with a goal scored when captain Thierry Henry handled the ball in the build-up.
Fifa turns down Irish replay plea

OK: Wednesday night Thierry Henry used his hand to control the ball, and France's equalising goal shouldn't have stood. But Fifa has spoken - the match will NOT be replayed. Furthermore, the French Football Federation has no intention of proposing a replay.
As Fifa has stated: "during matches, decisions are taken by the referee and these decisions are final."
End of story.

But the usual (over) reaction by the British press has been deplorable. In their myopic eyes, Thierry Henry has now been permanently tainted as a cheating, dirty footballer, who has no right to participate in "the beautiful game" - despite Henry's admission that he handled the ball, and despite his (somewhat belated) plea that replaying the World Cup play-off would be "the fairest solution."

Earlier this year, Robbie Keane helped the Republic of Ireland come from behind to beat Georgia 2-1 in a World Cup qualifier, by scoring a penalty in the 73rd minute, after an amazingly harsh handball decision against defender Ucha Lobjanidze.
However I don't recall any clamor in the press over the injustice to Georgia. Luck of the Irish, I guess...
Republic of Ireland 2-1 Georgia

Don't get me wong - as I stated in previous posts (during the Eduardo media witch-hunt), if a footballer is guilty of cheating, then he should be judged accordingly.
But in a year when we've seen fake blood in rugby matches, choreographed Formula One crashes, and an eight-time Grand Slam winner revealing he misled the tennis authorities about his use of crystal methamphetamine, watching the moral outrage over Henry's handball makes me want to reach for the sick-bucket...