Thierry Henry Should Retire From International Football

what FIFA could easily do is issue an apology and introduce video technology.

I understand why Herny is getting all the flack, but the authorities have been dragging thier feets for years and never shown any desire to banish these crimes or punish the players that comitt them. All anger should be directed at the authorities for being gutless cowards and letting the game slide into sh1t for the last decade and so on.

Players ** in every league all over Europe every week , what Henry did was no different.

Agree with everything said here. Believe the calling for replays etc is nonsense and embarrassing. This sort of this is endemic in football but that does not make it correct. Its probably endemic in most sports to be honest with the hon exception of golf, where it does occur by the way, proving that **s will be **s no matter what. I think why its not endemic in golf is because at a early stage the "honour" aspect is highlighted to kids.

Henry did instinctively what almost all players would do. Unlike most players, I think his post match reactions betrayed a bit of inner torment. Unfortunately for him, his episode has way bigger consequences (for Ireland) than 99% of the others which go on every week.

What would his retiring do? I think it might force FIFA to tackle the problem. I think it would also do him a lot of good as he probably does not want to be remembered (wrightly or wrongly) as a **.

Having said all of this, and being as rational and forgiving as I can possibly be, as an Irishman I will always think of him a a ly***, ch*****, f******, french C***. The irrational is whats great about football tho.

Great posts Sintonian and El Gato.

Regarding the debate about vide evidence. In my view there is a simple reason why this has not been introduced to date and that reason is money. You only need to look at the number of tabloid inches, website articles, TV news mentions that are devoted every week to controversial incidents that happen as a result of referee's decisions. All of this keeps football in the public eye and keeps Joe public talking about football with his mates during their tea-breaks.

If video replays were introduced and the number of such controversial incidents was reduced by say 70% then what would the impact be on the amount of publicity given to football in mainstream media?

I'm not so sure that this is a legitimate concern myself as there will always still be aspects of the game that stimulate interest and debate amongst fans, whether it's a fantastic goal or a bad foul - but I'm not so sure that the people who run professional football are willing to run that risk.

What would his retiring do? I think it might force FIFA to tackle the problem. I think it would also do him a lot of good as he probably does not want to be remembered (wrightly or wrongly) as a *****.

Having said all of this, and being as rational and forgiving as I can possibly be, as an Irishman I will always think of him a a ly***, ch*****, f******, french C***. The irrational is whats great about football tho.

:D
You will have the censors on overtime.
An eminently sensible and well thought out critique.
Especially the rational and forgiving part.

Grain this evening ?