Disgrace! There is no way on earth what he did warrants a 3 game ban. UEFA have got it in for England again!!
I'd agree that it was a red card offence, but 3 games is ridiculous. I could understand it if Rooney had sought to appeal the red card but he accepted it and (I think) he wrote a letter of apology to UEFA
Although Rooney did make contact with the player....the opposing player made a meal of it - from a slight knock would you drop that quickly? Maybe Rooney will learn one day?
If you look at it carefully he tried to kick the ball, but it had gone. It was NOT violent conduct or even a "Leg-breaker". I think a red was fair enough because the ball had gone and Rooney made little attempt to stop himself attempting to kick where the ball had been, which he could have done. But no way should the punishment have been increased. I'm sure he will still go, but it now opens up a whole can of worms. What if we still qualify and, say, Wellbeck or Zamora or Bent or Sturridge, score a few goals in the group stage, does Rooney come back in for the knock-out stage? How can the manager not include our only World-class player when he is available? What will doing that do to squad morale??
This is what I mean. The job of the referee is to prevent cheating and keep the game flowing, that's it. For some reason modern ones have all got delusions of grandeur and think their role is to have the greates impact possible, create the largest number of talking points possible and disrupt the game to the maximum. The one in the Monetenegro game should have been there to stop all of their ridiculous cheating. They brought a p[layer on at half time who did nothing but commit professional fouls continuously, every time we started to break away he was bringing someone down to stop it, he only got one yellow card, mainly because no one had heard of him. As soon as Rooney touches anyone the world and his mum all want to ump on the bandwagon and say it's his temper, including the ref, it was a foul at worst ffs. It was the exact same story with that one at the 2006 WC with Ronaldo. We were on a break, they started cheating to stop it, dragging Rooney to the floor and he got sent off for standing on someone's bollock. This celebrity culture thing has gone way too far, even the referees' hands seem tied by the glossy magazines.
In the official statement UEFA have described it as an ASSAULT! What????? If ever you want an example of UEFA having it in for England, there it is!! An Assault indeed!! Are they barmy?
Just seen the replay again. I hadn't realised until now that the cheating twat I was talking about in my previous post (their number 4) was the same guy who threw himself to the deck in agony in this incident. He could very feasibly have had 4 or 5 bookings and gets off free of charge, and yet Rooney misses 3 ****ing matches for once mildly bad tackle. You couldn't make it up. Also, isn't there a set rule for how many games te player misses for a straight red? If it's usually 1 match why has this been extended, under what grounds? If it happens in the PL it's always 3 games, did Danny Guthrie miss any extra games for that assault on ***an? (and that actually was an assault) So why can they make special arrangements for Rooney?
It is over the top, but then UEFA are a bunch of clowns. Next week they'll announce that Bulgaria have been fined £47.50 for racist chanting.
and it will be reduced to one.......predictable really. personally i think it was malicious and with intent. if he did that in manchester city centre on a saturday night he would spend the night in the cells
well if Man Utd had been fined £2 million for thre offence as he is, after all 'their property' and not a nation asset, then he will get away scott free on appeal for sure
correct but lets face it. even without rooney england are good enough to get through the group stage and with rooney england are nowhere good enough to win it. it wont matter overall. so its a non story as far as i am concerned. rooney got what he deserved for being stupid but a one match ban is more than enough for what he did. but this now gives others a chance to shine instead. the likes of gerrard and wilshere should be back fit and ready to go. so far those idiots at blunderside have wasted almost 30 mins on this boring subject. so much for local sport.
The ball wasn't even in the frame in the pic that I saw! Ban Shrek - stop frightening the children.....
simple answer. Rooney stays on the bench and becomes a very good sub for the knock out stages. Assuming of course that there are no injuries or suspensions.
