Anyone unfamiliar with The Guardian's Football Weekly podcast, now would be a very good time to get yourself acquainted.

You have to love some of the hack headlines though

The Hand of Frog

and

Oui were Robbed!

Brun - Well they can solve the problem by instituting rules for replay use that make it a useful tool. Issue the coaches of each team a challenge flag similar to the NFL - perhaps to be used once per match, or perhaps only to be used on goal review situations. I'm not that familiar with the rules of football (European) so I don't know what kind of penalty could be assessed for throwing a challenge flag and not winning the challenge (the referee's call standing). Certainly on such a big deal as this though - something should be done. You could tell from the reaction of the Irish players that the foul was clearly evident..

Good articles at the link Brun! I liked this guy's assessment:

"Thierry Henry had about five seconds in which to decide to join the immortals. While William Gallas wheeled away from the point-blank header which gave France the lead over the Republic of Ireland during extra time in their World Cup play-off last night, Henry's reaction could have gone one of two ways.

In the act of controlling the ball before providing Gallas with a perfect cross, France's captain had handled it. Not once, but twice. The first time might have been almost inadvertent, a pardonable reflex action as it was about to go out of play. The second, in which he scooped the ball with his left hand, redirecting it to drop nicely on to his right foot, was clearly intentional.

Even there, it could be argued that an element of reflex was involved. But in the few seconds that followed, Henry had two options. He could pretend that he had not broken the most basic law of outfield play. Or he could take the opportunity to neutralise the effect of his reflexes. To erase an error. To right a wrong. To be a man.
....
We all know which way Henry decided to go. With a broad, exultant beam on his face, he raced away from the scene of the crime to join Gallas and their team-mates in celebration of a goal that all knew was likely to be decisive in the battle for a place in next summer's World Cup finals.

For this was no ordinary piece of cheating. National pride and tens of millions of euros were at stake. So much greater, then, would have been the admiration of a decision to own up. Instead Henry chose to go down a path which exposed not just his own human frailty but the paranoid fear of failure running through a French squad (and their manager) haunted by comparisons with the glories of the recent past.

Henry was a hopeless captain at Arsenal and he is a hopeless captain of France. On Wednesday he did not have the gumption to say, "OK, that wasn't a goal" – an admission on which the referee would have been obliged to act – "but we'll use the remaining quarter of an hour's play to demonstrate that we are better than the Irish and more deserving of a place in the final 32 in South Africa next year."

And, being Henry, he reacted to the final whistle not by celebrating with his team- mates but by making a show of going over and sitting down on the turf to commiserate with the dejected Richard Dunne, the most heroic of Irish players. He told Dunne that the Irish had deserved to win, and admitted that he had handled the ball. "But," he added, "I am not the referee."

No, mon brave, but you are the captain of France, the country that gave us the World Cup, and here you had the chance to show us what sport can mean – or, at least, what we tell our children it means.

To rank the incident in Paris alongside Diego Maradona's "Hand of God" in 1986 is misleading. That was a street kid's instinct, acclaimed by his compatriots as revenge for Antonio Rattín and the Malvinas. Henry may come from Les Ulis, a quartier difficile outside Paris, but he is a sophisticated man, and a much decorated one. A chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur should have done better – by his opponents, by himself, and by the game."

"Oui were Robbed!"

Haha!! love it!

I'm guessing TH may be penalized and not allow to play 2 or 3 matches.
I've seen this event happen in Bundesliga and La Liga a few times. In those cases they would not replay the match but suspend the player for several matches.

"To rank the incident in Paris alongside Diego Maradona's "Hand of God" in 1986 is misleading. That was a street kid's instinct, acclaimed by his compatriots as revenge for Antonio Rattín and the Malvinas. Henry may come from Les Ulis, a quartier difficile outside Paris, but he is a sophisticated man, and a much decorated one. A chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur should have done better – by his opponents, by himself, and by the game." "

haha what rubbish!

You can take the man out of the ghetto, but you can't take the ghetto out of the man. 'Nuff said.

I don't

Well, I'm no football expert..but the whole mystery of the "Hand of God" stuff was that it wasn't really clearly caught on film correct? There was a lot of supposition about it. The Henry incident was clear in all it's high-def glory..and he even shrugs and admits it. The difference between the two incidents is the same and different I guess..

In the UEFA games in the Europa League and Champions League there are two new linesman at the end of the field next to the goal on each side precisely to deal with issues like this. FIFA should adopt the same system in the upcoming World Cup.