No, he cheated

So now we’ve all slept on it and Ireland are still out. The blatant cheating and the incompetence of the refereeing trio have got the world talking, and it seems a few people are on Henry’s side. So let’s have a look at a few of the things they are saying:
“Henry didn’t mean it, it was ball to hand” – but he touched it twice, and made no attempt to take his hand away from the ball on feeling the contact.
“It was the responsibility of the referee and the linesmen” – yes, but the referee didn’t put the ball on Henry’s hand. And it’s the player’s responsibility not to cheat.
“The defenders stopped playing to protest” – true, but that just shows how honest they are.
“Ireland should have scored more” – they scored enough for penalties.
“Who says they deserved to go through?” – everyone, including the French, because Ireland were better over two legs – Domenech’s France are rubbish.
“Henry is basically an honest guy, etc”- if he’d said yes, it was handball, I had to do it for my country, I’m really sorry for the Irish, then okay, but he disdainfully passed the buck to the referee.
“It’s unfair that he should be remembered for that goal” – no, it would be unfair for Gallas to be remembered for that goal, and again, he could have made things easier for himself by not resorting to cowardice.
“He couldn’t possibly say anything at the time” – Robbie Fowler did.
“Keane handled as well” – he did, but he didn’t protest when the referee blew for handball, he just walked away.
“It’s happened before” – yes, but not with as much at stake on one particular moment.
“Move on, get over it” – God bless them, Ireland don’t get many chances.
“It’s overreacting” – as one BBC journalist said, the English STILL bring up Mexico and that was 23 years ago!
“The referee basically had a good game” – no he didn’t, the four handballs (on both sides) and the two atrocious French dives went uncarded.
And here’s a cliché to finish off with – “the French are so arrogant” – actually, they have been absolutely fabulous to the Irish. I live in Dublin and today met a huge number of French people who were anything but arrogant. Mind, it would have been a different story if it had been against England...