THERE used to be a saying in British politics that today’s headlines were tomorrow’s fish and chip papers. It was meant to console MPs who had been caught with their trousers down or fingers in the till.

How Thierry Henry must wish the only reminder of his own misplaced digits was to be found wrapped around a helping of battered cod and greasy fries.

A week on and Le Hand of God is still being slapped down by a global outbreak of self-righteousness. Everyone from Times leader writers to two-bit bloggers has chimed in while the man himself claims he was so "devastated by the lack of support" that he considered retiring from the game. We should take that with rather more salt than we sprinkle on our chips.

Still, the incident has had enough legs to be debated in pubs and parliaments far and wide, and has even shaken FIFA sufficiently for them to call an emergency meeting.

In the unlikely event of them actually doing something, any ruling could well become known by the perpetrator’s name – just as Jean-Marc Bosman got his. And all this without being dubbed a "gate". One would like to think that having avoided such a dubious honour, a watershed would be the appropriate label if – and it’s a big "if" - football’s authorities belatedly acknowledge that we are in the 21st century.

Whatever you think of Henry’s morality, we must all surely agree that it’s pretty absurd when everyone from a goatherd in Timbuktu to a refugee banker sunning himself on a Pacific atoll has a better view of contentious incidents than the man supposed to be adjudicating on them.

As is often the case, the referee was unsighted when Henry handled but hundreds of millions of people around the world were not. Maybe the first time when the action took place in the blink of an eye, but when shown from other angles and in slow-motion, there was not a shred of doubt that an offence had been committed.

Had an empowered fourth official been privy to the same pictures, he could have informed the ref and a free-kick would have been given to Ireland. Kautim in a few seconds instead of becoming an international incident that is dragging on and on.

Making it even more unforgivable that video evidence is not used is that there are some 40 cameras positioned around the ground for big games while the fourth official is wired up to speak to the referee anyway. Surely, no one can claim that – except perhaps when fending off Alex Ferguson in attack-dog mode - he is too busy to watch a small screen.

Crowd safety has been raised as an issue here and it is accepted that to replay a dodgy moment on the big screen before the assembled hordes of Leeds and Millwall could run the risk of sparking World War III. Equally on such inflammable occasions, the fourth (or video) official might not feel entirely safe unless entombed in one of Saddam Hussein’s bunkers several hundred metres below the centre circle.

But the main objection that Messrs Blatter and Platini have to using technology is that it will disrupt the flow of play. Unless their viewing has been restricted to highlights of the Brazilian sides of Pele, Rivelino and Socrates, they ought to be aware that football does not often flow like the Ganges in flood.

It is far more stop-start than they like to admit – a bit more like the Federal Highway at rush-hour, in fact. And stopping play a couple more times to get pivotal decisions right would surely be a price worth paying.

Of course, play should not be stopped every time Didier Drogba goes to ground or Cristiano Ronaldo rolls over like a dead Indian in a bad cowboy movie. The details can be worked out. The rewind button should only be pressed when the officials think they need a second look or, as in tennis, where a limited number of appeals are allowed.

In football’s case, this would be from the coaches, not the players. There may be hiccups at first and it would not solve every case. But it would surely be an improvement on the present. After all, we do not disband the police force because they don’t catch every thief.

What is happening now is a shambles. The technology has been around since Methuselah was in diapers yet still they won’t use it. More people are watching and watching more closely, there is more scrutiny from the press and more is at stake – both financially and in terms of prestige.

Roy Keane thinks Ireland "should get on with it", but this from a man who once walked out of a World Cup because he didn’t like the way the cones were placed in training.

Ireland were understandably aggrieved but Henry should not be vilified as Diego Maradona was. Henry was wrong but he did what most players have admitted they would have done in his shoes.

But it is not up to the players to police the game – it is the officials and football owes it to them and everyone else to give them the tools to perform their thankless tasks properly.

The video is not a magic bullet that will cure every case but it will sort out most of them. By refusing to use it, FIFA are behaving like those sects who will let someone die rather than give them a blood transfusion.

For what happened in Paris, Henry has been made the scapegoat, but it is Blatter and Platini who have "blood" on their hands.