Three weeks ago I started to think about the World Cup.
Just World Cups in general, what they mean, and what I\’m looking forward to in South Africa.
I blogged France 98, blogged Korea-Japan 2002, and blogged the last World Cup in Germany, when Zidane butted Materazzi in the 2006 final.
It\’s now 13 days till the start of the World Cup.
I\’m hoping to enjoy it and will try to rise to the challenge by writing some good pieces here.
My deepest hope, at this moment, concerns Thierry Henry.
I really hope that he says : I\’m not going.
There is still time. There is still time for him to drop out.
Thierry Henry could call a press conference today and say, “I\’ve decided to do the decent thing. I cheated the Republic of Ireland out of qualification. I handled the ball twice to get us a goal in Paris and I can\’t live with myself. Every day I regret what I did in that play-off game. I can\’t sleep at night and I will carry the guilt of that handball for the rest of my life. My hands will be with me till the day I die and my hands are the hands of a cheat.
“I can\’t change the result of that game, but I can say sorry. And this is my way of saying sorry. I swindled my friend Robbie Keane out of the World Cup, I did something despicable to Shay Given, Richard Dunn and all the Irish players and staff who had done so well, again, for a small country.
“I hope that in time the Irish people, and football fans all over the world, will find it in their hearts to forgive me. I’m past it anyway, I can’t get a game for Barcelona, I’ve been a passenger at the Nou Camp in recent weeks. So I have decided to retire from international football. I don’t deserve to be there anyway. And I don’t want to be remembered as the Frenchman who cheated the Irish out of the World Cup.”
I won’t be writing about any France game that Henry plays in. Even for five minutes.