I've been mildly following the case of The Hand of Frog in the French media. Opinions are split but a great many, including politicians, admit to being ashamed of qualifying for the World Cup in this manner. Raymond Domenech, the manager, comes in for a lot of stick; what football manager doesn't? But this time as well as being castigated for poor management he's accused of teaching his players that a win at any cost is what counts.

I've heard players (not just in France) say that of course they would do something similar but in the expectation of being sanctioned by the referee. So it's his fault for not spotting the infringement. Other commentators lay the blame on football's move from sport to big money business.

I commend them all to take a lesson or two from professional golf. That's a big money business if ever there was but the players don't rely on being spotted by a referee for an infringement of the rules. They don't deliberately break the rules in the first place of course but a golfer who accidentally moves his ball in a situation in which a penalty would be imposed acts as his own referee and reports the fact, even if it makes a difference of a million dollars or so.