Thierry Henry cheats Ireland out of WC 2010

In amongst all the hand-wringing, conspiracy theories and heat-of-the-moment fury, one truth is unquestionable: tonight, Thierry Henry committed an outrageous act of cheating and got away with it.

I have no idea how long the video above will survive, but it shows Henry twice handling the ball to keep it in play and then "cross" it to William Gallas - himself offside from the original pass - to score the goal which sends France to World Cup 2010 and knocks Ireland out.

Twitter, as always, is abuzz with debate about the incident. How that can be, I don't know. The handball itself was as clear as day and no matter how many times I'm asked to name a professional who wouldn't do the same, or told that any professional would have done it, my opinion won't change.

Henry will rightly be subjected to a large amount of criticism. Yes, any professional might have done the same, but that doesn't excuse the fact that Henry did. In one moment, Thierry Henry has gone from being quite a popular player with an excellent reputation (not that I agreed with it, incidentally) to a common cheat. He is football's most unpopular man this evening.

Regarding Henry, I think it's a shame that such a brilliant player has soiled his legacy. Celebrating like a maniac hardly helped matters.

But for me this incident is made all the more interesting by the questions it raises. I have been vehemently against video technology in football for as long as I can remember. It would certainly have worked here, which puts me in a difficult spot. Even more likely is that UEFA's additional assistant referees (they're the fellas blocking the view of supporters behind the goals) would have spotted this handball.

The officials, of course, are getting much of the stick tonight but they simply got conned. The referee had no view at all of Henry's basketball skills and his assistant was a couple of yards behind play because he was busy not seeing Gallas being offside. Players have to take responsibility for cheating as much as referees do for spotting it.

Overall, it's a real shame. I've had my say somewhat more forcefully elsewhere. What say you?

UPDATE: The video has, predictably, been removed from YouTube. But you've all seen it anyway, right?