As an insight into the way the media and psyche of the country works “Eduardogate” was fascinating. The country that won its only major international football championship on the back of a controversial decision given by a linesman abhors cheating and worships fair play - unless it gives us an advantage over a perceived "enemy". Aforementioned goal - no problem; Germany are always the arch enemy and deserve to lose by whatever means. Michael Owen takes tumble or two - okay by us as it's against Argentina and who can ever forget the "hand of god". Away from football and in 2009, repeated time wasting in the last hour of the first Ashes test match in Cardiff with spurious visits to the middle from the dressing room - fine by us; anything to beat the Aussies who had loads of time to knock over the last wicket needed. Their fault not ours.

Fast forward to the Saturday after “Eduardogate” - two penalty incidents in the Man Utd/Arsenal (it had to be - poetic justice anyone?). Darren Fletcher slides in with a robust British challenge, misses the ball, catches both legs of the Arshavin and then handles the ball for good measure. No penalty. Wayne Rooney running away from the goal has his legs taken from underneath him by a challenge from Manuel Almunia. Penalty.

Both of these had the potential to be game changing in a way that the “Eduardogate” incident was not. Luckily the Arshavin one became a moot point as he scored less than a minute later. The Rooney one did not go away so quickly. Over to Graham Poll, one of England's most popular referees of recent years, so much so he had his own song at every ground in the country. First incident - no problem; you had to watch the replays to see that it was a penalty and, even though it clearly was, therefore the referee was entitled not to give it; or something like that. Second incident - even though he was going to ground before contact with the goalkeeper, that's OK as he was anticipating contact. Perfectly legitimate to anticipate contact according to nearly every commentator in the game. Our Graham even went as far as to say (on radio but not in print) that Rooney was possibly going to ground early to avoid hurting Almunia, nice lad that he is. Good old fair play all round supported by honest always numerate English ref and honest English pro.

So - what can we conclude? Eduardo anticipated contact in the same way as Rooney did only it never came. Rooney goes down; Eduardo goes down. Both referees give penalty kicks. (Arshavin's was clear cut in terms of the foul - there was no anticipation just no legs in contact with the ground to stand on.) Back to Eduardo - if Boruc had come through with his arms as most keepers do would we be having this debate now? Possibly not - at least not in this context. So we can all thank honest Artur Boruc - goalkeeper, Pole and saviour of the national game without whom the hooliganism of the Millwall/West Ham game may have been the order of the day in the media. And we wouldn't want that now, would we? Not with a World Cup bid coming up?

Fast forward to 2010 - World Cup Final England v (insert name of hated country here - so many to choose from). 0 - 0 in the 93rd minute and Stevie G is hacked down in the box - clear penalty and he bravely picks himself up to score from the spot. The 44 year wait is over and England are World Champions at last. But wait - some of the foreign media are claiming that Stevie dived - surely not? How could this be - the goalkeeper comes out and takes his... oh dear, no contact made at all? Stevie will be a little disappointed with that when he sees it again. Still, it’s only the (insert name of hated country here) so that's OK - but wait here comes FIFA with a life ban for Stevie as he stumbles out of the celebratory party at 4am with JT and the boys and an instruction to replay the game later that day. We must stand up to cheats they say - of all countries surely you English understand? Without Stevie a slightly worse for wear England lose 4-0 - a victory for honesty and fair play says the world and who are we to argue? The moral high ground has just become a very lonely and dangerous place to dwell!