If I were a football pundit, I’d be telling you how to fix the Thierry Henry fallout at a stroke

It’s terribly easy.

Take one American import – the coach’s challenge from American football. Each team’s manager is allowed to challenge two referee decisions in a match, with a challenge meaning an extra official consults the TV replay footage and then makes a decision (a bit like the fourth umpire in cricket too).

The crucial point is that each manager gets two, and only two, challenges per match. That means you don’t get a fast flowing game held up all the time for footage consultation. (Hence the need to do something different that simply copy the cricket rules.)

It would also curtail the theatrical over-reactions by players who are appalled at nothingness in an attempt to con the referee. Because what happens if they give a stunning act of protest that doesn’t sway the referee? Their manager then thinks about using one of their two challenges – at which point the player would have to either see a challenge wasted or do a nimble bit of acting back tracking and suddenly swear that everything is really all right after all.

It’d be worth doing just to see the histrionic u-turns.

But them, I’m not a football pundit. So what do I know?