Thursday, September 3, 2009

To UEFA, Where Is The Consistency?

I guess many had read about the news on Eduardo was condemned with 2 Champions League (CL) matches ban. Reports to articles, fans to journalists, claimed that he dived to earn a penalty for his team. The Celtic goalkeeper, Artur Boruc plead for mercy as there was no contact made upon the opposite forward, but the theater of act from Eduardo had gained the upper hand from the referee.

The match ended with Arsenal FC won by 3 goals to 1, which saw them qualified into the Champions League 09/10 with 5-1 on aggregate. As a result, the Scotland's being too unhappy with the outcome, decided to clinch on their feminine side and make Arsenal's life miserable by bombarding all the media that Eduardo should be banned from Champions League.

The UEFA Champions League had a meeting last Monday, and concluded that he will be banned for 2 upcoming Champions League matches in just 50 minutes of discussion, after rejecting their 19-pages defense of the Croatia international. Eventually it lead to a scene and created uproar back in Ashburton Grove and among all its supporters. No doubt Arsene Wenger stressed on fair play many years ago, but the decision by the UEFA CL is indeed injustice and is overwhelmed by emotions rather than being rational and logical.

"I think it is difficult with diving. Sometimes players dive to escape being hit. It's not always necessarily diving because you want to dive. Sometimes it's a way of getting out of the way.

"The borderline between being sensible, being shrewd or being a cheat is very slim so, in some cases, to assess which is which is very difficult.

"Uefa have made the case of Eduardo. If you watch the Super Cup on Friday then they will have to charge (Lionel) Messi for headbutting or they will lose credibility. They have opened something there that over the weekend I'll find you 50 situations where they can intervene, or if they don't Eduardo will be singled out for being a wrong victim. I do not want Messi to be punished but if they go for Eduardo then people will demand it. Pedro, also of Barcelona, dived as well [in the Super Cup] and so I don't think there's any logic to Eduardo's case. We have clear proof that from behind he was touched on his right leg.

"There is no common sense. I believe it was a more emotional decision really because if UEFA had said before the season starts, 'Listen, let's get together and no matter what happens in UEFA games, if we suspect someone of diving he will be punished' then you could say, OK, we've always been told they will do that. But suddenly, out from nowhere because it was an emotional situation in Scotland, we have this situation and have to live with that."

Just to make the matter worst, Eduardo did not appeal for a foul nor a penalty when he dived!

Being an Arsenal fan, i could easily identify that its a dive the moment i watch it from the reverse angle. To me, YES, yes Eduardo should be punished. And im quite disagree with it as i felt things should only remain in the pitch. However, why is it they 'witch-hunt' Eduardo or Arsenal FC? Why this instance? Because the Scottish couldnt dealt with their lost like how man do, but to infect the others?

Arsene Wenger, generally known as The Professor later said, "We have been deeply frustrated by the perfunctory and apparently arbitrary process that UEFA has followed in this instance. We believe it is imperative that UEFA’s explanation for its decision provides clear and comprehensive standards that will be consistently enforced. It is also critical that Uefa provides specific details of the processes it plans to adopt in reviewing all games under its jurisdiction."

Arsenal will have until early next week to lodge an appeal as UEFA rules dictate they have three working days from receipt of the reasoned explanation to form a counter argument but the tone of their statement makes it all but certain the ban will be contested.

If the appeal didnt get through, i believe the UEFA is going to have a busy schedule ahead entertaining all the challenges from football clubs on decision made by the referee that goes against them. If im part of the UEFA governing body, i would rather hire 2 extra linesmen on the sidelines at each of the respective goalpost to provide a better coverage and inject the match with more accurate decision.

As one of the fan commented, "Arsenal should just accept the punishment and then hire an independent body to closely watch all future UEFA, Champions League matches. If any player so much as stumbles without contact then he should be banned for two matches. If not Arsenal should sue UEFA for double standards and take Platini's balls as trophies."

LOL. Well said...

2 comments:

Vince Yeoh said...

Agree with you that sometimes a player dived and still ask for foul or penalty, then I should just say, keep your mouth shut and ready to get yellow card or red card.

If happen that the player dived and he didn't appeal for anything, in my opinion, no action should be taken against him, as he realised that he was making mistake.

By the way, it's not the first time Barcelona getting special treatment from UEFA. Just take an example of recent incident, during last season's Champions League semi final 2nd leg match between Chelsea and Barcelona. You should know that I'm anti Chelsea, but I'm siding Chelsea on this incident, as they were so unlucky to lose the match, having a few penalty appeals rejected by referee.

Dann said...

Speaking of Chelsea, i heard from hitz.fm this morning that Chelsea is in serious trouble cause FIFA had issued a transfer ban for 2 transfer windows! Chelsea could not buy or sell any players until January 2011 (winter transfer). Lens claimed that Chelsea had stolen their player, Gael Kakuta, without going through the proper procedure. Breach of contract.

Of cause Chelsea is going to appeal since this is a huge embarrassment for the club and with the average age is 28.9, they are forced to look into their reserve and youth teams.

We'll see how they go from there...

Dann the Ninja!