Sponsored by
Matt Reeder: Henry shows it is now time to hand over to video technology
In the time it took Swedish referee Martin Hansson to wave away the Irish protests, collect the ball, put it on the spot for the re-start and check that the French celebrations had finally come to a halt, the watching TV audience of millions were already well aware of the travesty of footballing justice unfolding in front of them.
As Shay Given and his colleagues continued with their desperate pleas, the viewers at home watched yet another replay from yet another angle of an incident which could have major repercussions for our beautiful game.
Indeed, by the time the whistle blew for play to re-start, the footage of Thierry Henry paddling the ball into his path with a deft, villainous thrust of his left hand, had been shown five, maybe six or even seven times.
I am not Irish, yet I found myself boiling up in a rage, willing someone, anyone in authority to walk onto the Stade de France pitch, call a halt to proceedings and ask the referee to think again.
This was no 'did he, didn't he?' situation, there was no 'maybe' about it. Henry handled the ball (twice by my reckoning) before laying it across goal for William Gallas to nod into the net.
It was obvious, it was clearcut, it was like a dagger through the hearts of the Irish supporters, and for the English viewers it brought back bitter memories of the 'Hand of God' moment.
Unlike Maradona's controversial goal in Mexico, however, Wednesday's 'Le Main de Dieu' incident could yet spark a debate big enough to re-shape the sport and how it is played worldwide.
As in 1986, the goal has stirred up a real hornets' nest of debate exacerbated by Henry's post-match comments.
"Yes, there is a handball but I am not the referee," was the former Arsenal striker's verdict, and with that a reputation many years in the making at Highbury and the Emirates of an honourable footballer was gone. He cheated, end of story.
Aside from the many questions directed at Henry regarding his integrity, there were more basic issues regarding the rules and the officials.
There were calls for better referees, for more officials to be used on the pitch and, of course, for video technology to be introduced.
Some, with Irish accents it has to be said, even called for the game to be replayed, though even manager Giovanni Trapattoni accepted that was something of a fanciful concept.
I recall similar issues being raised in the aftermath of Mexico 86. We knew Maradona had punched the ball into the net, but we were forced to suck it up and move on. That was football, that was all part of the game and we simply had to put up with it.
However, back then the technology simply was not available or not good enough to be used in a constructive way.
Fast forward to today and there is every possibility that such a high-profile incident will, at last, lead to the introduction of the video referee.
Football has long resisted the idea of using TV cameras to determine whether referees have made the right or wrong decision.
You cannot always blame the officials. They are human, they make mistakes – honest mistakes. But they have no chance when footballers, as Henry and Maradona blatantly did, seek to hoodwink them to gain an advantage.
While the likes of rugby league and cricket have embraced such technology, albeit with varying degrees of success, the powerbrokers of world football at FIFA, UEFA and even the FA, have continually shied away from such newfangled ideas.
Up until Wednesday evening, I probably agreed with them.
We have all stood on the terraces staring in disbelief having seen our team cheated out of a crucial victory, or looked on in horror as another refereeing error called an end to England's progress at major tournaments. But football, I felt, did not need technology. Okay, so mistakes are often made, but so be it... that is the nature of the beast. You win some, you lose some.
The time, however, has come for a change.
Football needs to catch up with the modern world and accept that technology does indeed have its place, if used correctly.
If the technology is there to determine whether a goal should count then let us use it.
Rugby league fans have embraced T-R-Y time and that is how I see football joining the technology party. If the referee has any doubts over whether a goal should or should not stand then he seeks clarification from a video official sitting in the stands.
Why should millions of TV viewers benefit from the replays when the man in the middle is the one who matters most but is left in the dark?
It would have taken minutes for the replay to have shown Henry's handball and the goal would certainly have been ruled out by the Swedish official.
Questions of where you would draw the line with technology and how far down football's pyramid do you introduce it would certainly need to be addressed. But the prizes for success are so great and the punishments for failure so dire in modern football that we can no longer stick our heads in the sand thinking 'there is no need to fix it'.
There is, and we must.
Of course, no change can benefit Trapattoni's team, only a replay would make their eyes smile again.
But while they await news of such an unlikely reprieve you can expect the arguments over technology to rumble on.
Email to a friend
Print this page- Three-inch blanket of snow heading our way today
- Alan Shearer in list of favourites for Leeds and England jobs: Latest odds
- Barnsley’s Keith Hill invokes Fawlty Towers over link with Leeds job
- McCormack feels United search can be narrowed down
- Redfearn throws down gauntlet as queue builds at Elland Road
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 11 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -2 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 7 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 2 C to 5 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: North west
