Luis Suarez has been condemned for the handball that saved Uruguay against everyone's second favourite team at the World Cup, Ghana.
The consensus seems to be that it was a flagrant act of cheating and that Suarez, and indeed football itself, ought to be ashamed.
In a more sensible, reforming sport, such as rugby, with its system of penalty tries, Suarez's handball would have resulted in Ghana being awarded not a penalty, as they were, but a penalty goal and thus victory.
As sorry as I was to see the Black Stars eliminated, I cannot help feeling that Suarez's handball was a kind of noble sacrifice.
Yes, he cheated but he did in the certain knowledge he would be sent off. And so Suarez was thinking not of himself but only of the team. There's nobility in that. He and Uruguay were lucky.
Asamoah Gyan missed the penalty and Ghana went on to lose the shoot-out. But Suarez is unlucky, too, as he is banned from playing in what should have been the greatest game of his career, a World Cup semi-final.
But at least Uruguay, a tiny country of 3.3 million people, are still standing for now. That may be compensation enough for Suarez as he watches the game tomorrow.
