For all the stick that the like of Barcelona and Real Madrid and (well basically any other Spanih team and many other European) teams get for surrounding the ref and asking for cards, it i appearing more and more like that is the only way to get decisions, particularly in europeand competition. I cant remember the two players involved, but I distinctly remember earlier in the first half tonigh a basel player going in with 2 studs showing to tackle a man utd player. Result: a talking to and no card. Id love to be in the parallel universe where that tackle was made on a barcelona player. The victim would have hollywood dived and rolled times over holding his leg, and every single barcelona player would have surrounded the ref demanding a red card. The odds the Basel player would have walked? Im not necessarily blaming barca players, as if this is the way to get decisions then so be it. Are ref's just too weak? A player was booked in the dying seconds of the half. There is no way on earth the ref called that a booking until everybody in the stadium demanded it...... Spoken as a worried fan of english football - are we a bit too honest sometimes? I KNOW english players dive. But do cards have to be demanded to be given?
Football as a whole is fast becoming a joke and I blame the standard of refereeing and the non-governance from bodies like FA, UEFA and FIFA.
the same applies for players going down with the most innocuous of touches. Often when a player is fouled but doesn't go down, he doesn't get the decision
You know he supports Cardiff, right? But it is an interesting point - Liverpool players surrounded the ref after the red card at the weekend and the club has now been charged with failing to control its players. Barca and Real players surround the ref and generally get the decision and the card that they want. I wonder if UEFA has ever charged Real or Barca with failing to control their players?
