“Marquez and Puyol cheated – I don’t have the mentality to cheat. Maybe that’s my mistake.” Those were the words from a dejected Thierry Henry after the 2006 Champions League final when he was on the losing side for Arsenal. How the tables have turned.   The events from handgate has brought into question the reputation of the Gunners legend, with his former mentor at Highbury, Arsene Wenger, leaping to his defence after the striker was accused of being a cheat following the double handball that led to France’s hollow World Cup play-off victory over the Republic of Ireland.   Of course, Wenger is right when he says there have been other sporting heroes who have committed far worse.

Rugby Union’s bloodgate, the recent Formula One scandals and officials in football being paid off verge on criminality. Here, the unsavory acts were premeditated, meticulously calculated and involved everyone from the hierarchy down to the individual carrying out the decisive action.

Nobody could argue that Henry’s initial actions weren’t instinctive, and it’s true that most players would probably have done the same thing if they had been in similar circumstances. But what’s been easily overlooked here is everything that followed – the crude goal celebration, the empty gesture of sitting beside a distraught Richard Dunne at the end of the game and the inflammatory comments post-match.

It would have been difficult for any professional to own up immediately to what they did, especially in a game of this magnitude. But while Henry only had a split second to think about scooping the ball with his hand to tee up William Gallas for the goal, he had plenty of time to think about the celebration.

Reacting the way he did was part of the process of conning the referee. A player’s reaction to a contentious incident is a telltale sign officials look for and there was no obvious sign of suspicion, with the exception of the united appeals from the Irish players.

It was, in the words of Golf’s Padraig Harrington, a beacon of sportsmanship, ‘galling’ and coupled with the events which followed, brought the game into disrepute at best and for that alone Henry should be banned from the World Cup.

If Robbie Keane had done exactly the same thing at the other end, and Ireland had qualified, nobody could complain if the authorities denied him the right to represent his country next summer.

It shouldn’t even come down to FIFA – the player himself should own up and withdraw himself from the finals in South Africa. At the Stade de France in May 2006, Henry also said: “Barcelona left with the Cup, but we left with our dignity and I think that is more important”. Ironically it was the same venue where the striker lacked plenty of it last week.

The whole affair isn’t necessarily going to leave Henry’s reputation in tatters. It would take something depraved to undo the great work he done for Arsenal and for English football, but the game has been good to him as well. The World Cup, the Champions League, La Liga and the Premiership have all come Henry’s way, but he can elevate himself to a higher pedestal and become an even bigger hero.

One of Henry’s old adversaries, Roy Keane, was absolutely right when he said it should never have got to that stage in the first place. But the fact of the matter is that cheating, although in a lesser form, took place in one of the most important games this year and can’t be ignored.

If Henry ends up scoring a decisive goal in the finals then it will be tainted and make fans feel even more disillusioned with the game’s soul.