Usually on a Monday, I use this column to write about the Barclays Premier League…but not today! 

Can you imagine what its like to play in front of millions - it has to be a buzz.  

Can you imagine scoring or making the all important goal in front millions and taking your team to the Promised Land – buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz? 

Now can you imagine that you’ve just been caught cheating in front of said millions – buzz kill…maybe! 

The World Cup is considered the ultimate marker in football. To become a World Champion places you with a select handful and to be honest, without the World Cup Finals on your resume, you can only be considered great - never the greatest.  

Perhaps this is one of the reasons why, when the stakes are at their highest, players will do just about anything to propel their countries to football’s most desired summit…even at the expense of their own footballing reputations. For example… 

When I think of Diego Maradona, I think of two things. The first is grand larceny in front of millions. The second is the greatest goal I have ever seen. 

When I think of Thierry Henry, I also think of two things. The first is grand larceny in front of millions. The second is a footballing genius. 

Both Maradona and Henry are footballers with very few peers. Their trophy cabinets mark them down as two of the greatest to have ever laced on boots…and yet will they ever be spoken about in the hushed, revered tones of a Pele, a Bobby Charlton, and a Zinedine Zidane. I think not. The reason being is that...they’re cheats! 

When Maradona wheeled away from Peter Shilton at the Azteca Stadium in 1986 he looked for his teammates to come and legitimize his goal - Henry did the same last Wednesday night at the Stade de France. Their smiles though, were smiles of thieves.  

These two footballing icons didn’t just break English and Irish hearts though. They stole something from the soul of football, the fans who worship them and ultimately, their own legacies. 

In the aftermath, Henry, almost happily admitted his guilt as a way of absolving himself. ‘I’m not the referee’ he said and in a way he’s right. That responsibility fell to Martin Hansson who looking at the replays was probably unsighted. 

Meanwhile Maradona couldn’t have been more delighted with his skullduggery claiming “un poco con la cabeza de Maradona y otro poco la mano de Dios” (a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God). I still to this day have no idea what Ali Bennaceur’s excuse was. 

Perhaps though I am being a little unfair?  

If the referee has the ultimate say on the pitch shouldn’t the ‘Hand of God’ become a Maradona and Bennaceur production, while the ‘Hand of Gaul’ belongs to Henry and Hansson? 

After the Azteca debacle, Bennaceur never took charge of another high profile match and surely the same fate awaits Hansson however only in their small circles will they be known as the men that ‘blew’ the call that changed history. It seems like the men in black get off relatively easy compared to the perpetrators. 

I guess the last question we have to ask is which was the worse affront to football? 

Maradona was at the quarter-final of the 1986 World Cup, the tournament he’d been brutally kicked out by Brazil and Italy four years earlier.  

Henry was at the qualifying stage of a tournament he’d already won back in 1998. 

Of the two and I can’t quite believe I’m writing this, I’m more forgiving of Maradona. He didn’t throw Bennaceur under the bus after the match and he sort of redeemed himself with ‘that’ goal.  

Henry took the back way out and seemingly was more concerned with protecting his marketability than protecting the honor of the game pointing the finger at Hansson. 

Perhaps though the last word should go to Ireland’s old captain, Roy Keane, who said that his country got what they deserved. He claimed that Shay Given should’ve taken control of his area and that any team that allows a ball to bounce in the penalty area should be punished.  

I have always wondered whether Peter Reid should’ve just hacked down Maradona at the half way line. 

If either Given or Reid does the right thing, in other words, the professional thing, Maradona and Henry never live in infamy.  

Until then, I’ll see you at the far post.