Time to tackle rotten soul of beautiful game

THE man in the hat had it right. Cornered by one of Sky’s breathless reporters underneath the Eiffel Tower (of course), the unsuspecting Irlandais – his green fedora cocked at an inappropriately jaunty angle – was asked what diabolic punishments should be meted out to Thierry Henry in the wake of the ‘Hand of Frog’.

We braced ourselves for the hot-blooded, indignant response of the morally aggrieved: an outright boycott of all Gillette shaving products, perhaps, or maybe an organised march to Barcelona, complete with obligatory flaming torches, to daub Camp Nou’s walls with pro-Tottenham propaganda.

But, no, revenge was not on Fedora Man’s agenda.