Football players just can't be trusted to be honest and Thierry Henry proved that by choosing to play volleyball against Ireland, blatantly handling the ball for the goal that sent France to the World Cup.

Cheating, plain and simple. More proof, if it was needed, that football needs far better on-field policing.

"Something has got to be done," says Graham Barber, a former Premier League and FIFA referee with hands-on experience of dealing with Henry.

The answer is not video replays. Video could have helped in Paris on Wednesday night, because replays clearly showed France's captain steering the ball with his left forearm and hand onto his right foot for the pass that William Gallas then headed in.

But video isn't always clear-cut. More importantly, stopping every few minutes to consult replays would ruin the flow of the game.

Football isn't tennis. Technology works in that sport because play has already stopped when players use the high-tech Hawkeye system to challenge linesmen's calls.

But in football, play often continues after shirt-pulling, dives, handballs and other fouls that could, in theory, be spotted on video when missed by referees. That actions flow one after another, end to end, is part of football's magic. Stop-start, stop-start shouts from referees of "Hang on a second, let's pause and take a few seconds to look at that on television" would be a disaster. Might as well toss in commercial breaks while we're at it, too.

Barber says frequent referrals to video would be like "pulling the emergency chain on the train if someone spilled a cup of coffee."

... contd.