Category: Sports Bar
So I'm genuinely curious to get other opinions on this story.
UEFA, (Union of European Football Associations) has decided to impose a two match ban on the Arsenal player Eduardo for diving to win a penalty in their 3-1 second leg victory against Celtic in their recent Champions league qualification match at the Emirates stadium.
Now firstly let me say that I abhor cheating of this nature, and it would seem to be a side to the sport that has proliferated in recent times. Or perhaps it is more true to say that it is an issue that is more in focus than ever before because of the ever growing number of cameras at football matches. Whatever the reasons behind it, this is very much a problem in the modern game and so perhaps we should applaud the European governing body for taking a stance against it. Certainly on the surface then this would seem to be a sensible and valid response to what many claim was a clear attempt to dupe the officials into awarding a penalty that shouldn't have been.
However, many others take the view that this is a heart-over-head decision taken in the heat of the moment by UEFA and that it has serious long-term consequences.
Now much as I dislike seeing any player cheating to gain an advantage over an opponent, I must say that I whole heartedly agree with the latter view for a couple of reasons.
For starters, where does this new ruling stop? Is diving only a banning offense retrospectively if post-match it is proven to have given a clear advantage to one side as in this instance with Eduardo? Arsenal won a penalty in this particular incident from which they scored, so that advantage was gain is in no doubt. But what about if a player dives outside of the penalty box so that only a free kick is forthcoming. Especially if no direct advantage is then shown to have been won. Say if the free kick is harmlessly blasted over the cross bar and out for a goal kick to the opposite team. Could this player still expect to receive a two match ban? It would seem to me that this would have to be the case because other wise, how can this be considered a fair deterrent. You can hardly say that diving inside the penalty box is an automatic 2 match ban, but diving anywhere else is perfectly acceptable. That would be a gross double standard and would hardly help deal with stamping out the fundamental problem. There would also be the problem of proving exactly what was and wasn't direct advantage. After all, winning a free kick and then harmlessly wasting it might not automatically seem to give any advantage one way or the other, however, if there is only sixty seconds left on the clock and you're winning by a single goal, it doesn't take a genius to work out that it would be of great benefit to your side to have the ball as far away from your own goal as possible.
So surely the only answer would be to make diving a banning offense, wherever the infraction transpired on the pitch. All fair enough then, you dive, you get banned.
But surely then this stance would have massive implications all across Europe because as I've already stated above, diving in football is a considerable and persistent problem. Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger himself has stated that if you follow through with this ruling then you are going to be dealing with dozens of banning's every weekend all across Europe, and in spite of the fact that this comment was made in defense of his own player, it is hard to argue that he doesn't have a point. Offenses of this nature do happen all the time. So now one assumes that if the rules are to be implemented fairly, that every player caught in this act can expect to receive an automatic 2 match ban.
It strikes me in all honesty that this action by UEFA has opened up a whole can of worms that they probably didn't want too. At least it should do, because this action can only be considered a fair response to cheating if these new rules are taken up unilaterally. That is to say that it wouldn't be fair that Eduardo gets a 2 match ban for diving in a champions league match against Celtic if the same rules don't then apply else where. At the very very least European football should now have to embrace this new law. It would hardly be right if Eduardo is banned this month for an act that we all know full well will be taking place regularly all over Europe shortly as the champions league proper gets under way.
I'd also be interested to see how this new law would exactly work because ordinarily where matters of discipline are concerned, action is only ever taken after games on the match referees recommendation. However this didn't happen in this instance so far as I am aware. UEFA only decided to take action after a media outcry fueled by complaints from Celtic players and Scottish Football association officials.
So are we to take it from this that it is now down to the clubs, and not match officials, to highlight incidents post-match that they believe need looking into? If that should prove to be the case then the term "Can of worms," would hardly seem to do justice to what UEFA may have opened here because while UEFA is an impartial body, clubs cannot make the same claim and yet based on what has gone on in the Eduardo situation, it would seem to throw wide the door for clubs to openly be able to question match decisions made by officials.
All in all then this to me would seem to be a very rashly made, poor decision. And that's even before you consider the thumb in the eye that this would be to referees. They go out and week after week perform an already thankless task, and now UEFA has effectively given clubs all across Europe the green light to question any decision that they see fit. That doesn't seem right to me, indeed it rather seems to undermine all the work that football's various governing bodies have done in recent times with regard to getting players and club coaching staff to show match officials more respect. "Yes ref, of course I respect you, however, I also think you're as blind as a bat, made a total hash of that decision and what's further more, I'm going to very publically say so shortly."
Not clever UEFA, not clever at all. I only hope now that some more rational thinking is brought to the table when considering how to move forward from here because this is certainly going to throw up some issues.
So does anybody else have any thoughts on this? Do you feel that UEFA was perfectly with in it's rights to ban Eduardo for what he did? Or do you subscribe to the view that this decision was taken in haste and that European Football's governing body has made a rod for it's own back.
Dan.
I see two problems with this decission by UEFA, at lest:
1. (Less important but still a point I was wondering about) if team A is found to have cheated to get advantage against team B, knocking them out, how come Team A gets to progress and then be punished against team C by having a player banned. This does notbenefit team B whatsoever and doesnot address the fact that that team was, supposedly, cheated out a chance to advance. I feel banning a player from a team in this manner is unfair and the only reasonable way to deal with this is either an immediate review of the refs decission or, alternatively, a rematch between the two teams in question.
2. This decission opens, like you said, a can of ugly worms and now hundreds of cases might come flooding in from losing teams. I feel this should not be at all allowed, by "this" I mean disciplinary action against the player after the match.
So what are our alternatives:
As I see it, to revolutionize the game by adding a video review. The NHL (National Hockey League) does this for goals at least, a questionable decission is sent for instant video review in the control room in Toronto, Canada, and their decission is binding. This does not apply, as far as I know, for offenses or "power plays" where a player is sent off the ice for 2 minutes for a foul on the other team (it might in some cases, but I am pretty sure it]s never done). That, to me, seems to be the only fair thing to do, but it slows down the game, adds a technical complexity, and may not even manage to remove all contraversy (Google or look up Carolina Hurricanes vs Boston Bruins, game 3, goal by Chad Larose). The puck was judged tohavenot crossed the line, or rather, the insufficient evidence was found to reverse the ref's decission that it doesn't. A vast majority of fans, even for the Bruins, were sure the puck did cross the line. Even more technology with sensors inside the ball and the goal posts could solve this problem, but then I feel we're taking a huge element out of the game.
So, basically, I believe this approach is disastrous for the game (and I am not a Chelsea fan). Either UEFA has to deal with this problem by issuing a clearer directive to their refs, or by introducing an expensive, wieldy and slow system of technology to minimize the refs influence on the game. Allowing teams to issue challenges and ban players by media proxy after the game could simply throw the game into chaos, ruining it for all concerned.
Liverpool felt they should've gotten 2 penalties against Tottenham, should the points be transferred to them now if enoughfans write to the fA? I'd be happy as a Liverpool fan, but I'd be sad because I'd see the end of English football.
The one thing I hope the Uefa will manage to squeeze through is to set a cap on teams' player budgets. I highly enjoy the way NHL does this with an ultimate sallary cap and also by a system where the draft picks are rated and the team that finished at the bottom of the league gets the first pick. This probably would not work in a world where teams can simply go down to the next devission, but it makes for a very exciting game with new teams, new hopes and new champions every year, instead of the same 4 clubs in England winning it for the last 20 years (and, hey, Liverpool hasn't won this since prehistoric yesteryear really).
I know it's unrelated, but I am curious what people think of this too, if they have no opinion on the original topic.
I must confess B that when I saw on the BBC website that UEFA had decided to take disciplinary action against Eduardo I was a little gob smacked. I just can't see that any good can come from this decision. I complete agree with your point too that while a player has been held accountable for his cheating actions, it does in no way benefit Celtic.
Referees are their to do a job, I absolutely don't agree with all this nit-picking after the event. What's the point in having a ref on the pitch if you're going to start over turning everything he does during a game. Sure some times he is going to get things wrong, it happens. It is just part of the game for me. By all means think of ways that could make the referees job easier, but please give any decisions some meaningful thought and don't just jump around at the whim of the media and moaning clubs because they feel hard done by.
Because really that's what gets my goat in all of this, this actually seems like nothing more than a decision taken more because it was thought to be popular with the masses than because any serious thinking was put in. And that of course, is no good reason at all.
On the subject of salary caps I completely agree too. For far too long the big clubs have had all the power while everybody else has been left feeding off the scraps. I was interested to read this evening Portsmouth's chief executive Peter Storrie saying that before the clubs recent take over they came very close on a couple of occasions to going into administration. That's Portsmouth! this isn't some small club languishing at the bottom of league 2, they're a well established Premiership football club with all that that entails financially. Now if a club in that privileged position is struggling to make ends meet then surely it is high time to accept that there are big problems with in the game.
The encouraging news though is that finally even some of the larger clubs are starting to accept that there is a need for change and that's a good thing because unfortunately the balance of power with in the European structure at the moment means that the largest clubs, Manchester United, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Barcelona etc. Do have a huge amount of the say and in all likelihood, without there agreement, nothing could happen.
I do fear though that greed may still get in the way of common sense on this issue, but at least people are talking about it seriously at long long last and that can only be good.
Dan.
I read somewhere a few days ago that Uefa intends to introduce regulation saying that a club may spend no more money on player transfers than they make in ticket sales minus expense, basically profits from ticket sales. I can't source the article right now, just read an Icelandic translation of it in the Icelandic newspaper, but if this is the case I applaud them for getting at least something right.
I mean, at the same time Eduardo is booked for diving Benitez is being disciplined for complaining about penalties that were not given, though that is the F A I guess.
Like you said, I wish people would just stop whining after the game and blaming diving and the ref for all their problems. It's unsportsmanlike and, I think, can jeopardize the whole sport eventually.