Caulker Banned

Steven Caulker has been banned for 2 games for his part in the England v Serbia U21 game, that was marred by racist abuse and violence.
Tom Ince misses 1 game and 4 Serbian players have been banned for 2 to 4 games.
Two Serb coaches have been banned from the game for two years, which seems disproportionate to the other punishments and their FA has been fined €80,000.

I have no idea what either player was actually found to have done and there's no comment available from anyone, yet.
Not impressed.

 

Just to clarify, does this ban apply to England under 21 games only PNP ??

 

It appear so, SC. Italy and Norway, apparently.

Serbia's next home U21 game will have to be played behind closed doors, too. Missed that.

 

What did Tom Ince do? Wasn't it Caulker and someone else who were charged by the Serbian court? I know it's UEFA who handed out these punishments but I didn't think Ince's name was ever mentioned with the trouble.

As for the coaches, well if they'd got given a 4 game ban I'd be fuming I'm not sure how there ban would even work either, does it stop them from being on the payroll of any football team registered with a FIFA affiliate football association?

 

Now that you mention it, I think it was a different player.
Tom Lees of Leeds, wasn't it?

 

**** they miss Under 21 Euro 13 games then? I expect to see the FA appealing on their behalf on the grounds that suspensions for tournament games are harsher than normal. They set their precedent with Wazzock Rooney.

 

seems like all the black players have been pulled up for being black and daring to defend themselves.

 

Fair play to Caulker and Ince(and others)who refused to be racially bullied by the Serbian fans, team and staff, typical of Uefa to punish the innocent to justify punishing the guilty.
So much for the FIFA/UEFA campaign to come down hard on racism.

The FA should/must appeal the bans and highlight the cowardice shown by Europe's governing body.

 

For those who haven't read the whole article:
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/s...s-action-over-serbia-england-violence?cc=3436

 

I think that it says a lot that the Serbian FA actually gave their own players harsher bans than UEFA did, in two cases.
Mudrinksi and Ninkovic got 3 and 2 games from Platini and co, but a year from all national team games by their own ruling body.

 

It's at the point where you just have to laugh and accept UEFA and FIFA are a lost cause when it comes to fighting racism. City got fined more for returning from the dressing rooms a minute late than Porto got for monkey chants at City players in the same game. Russia have racism and violence problems at domestic level, that's fine have a World Cup. Qatar have homophobic laws, problems with anti-semitism(that they don't see as a 'problem') and all sorts of other unsuitablities, have a World Cup too

For all it's flaws the FA at least recognise that it's a problem and not one that will be solved by pittance fines.

 

So...the serbian FA deny there was any racism. Then they issue a video on youtube claiming it proved there was no racism. They claimed the England black players particularly danny rose were the problem.
UEFA investigate and fine the Serbian FA £65,000, ban some players and ban 2 coaches for 2 and 3 years apiece and making the Serbian under 21 play their next atch behind closed doors...ie they found them guilty yet have fined them less than Bendtner was fined for breaking sponsorship rules!
UEFA are a joke ... Serbia have been given warning after warning and the fact their FA acted like they did after this incident proves they aren't interested in tackling the problem...therefore they should be banned from the next tournament and sebian clubs banned from European club competition for the next year.

 

There's a piece in last month's WSC that put blame on the Serbian authorities for staging the game in Krusevac.

If the game was staged in Belgrade, the police would have had plentiful experience of dealing with large and rowdy crowds, as well as (and this is important) known who the troublemakers were so they could keep them out. By staging the game in Krusevac, the local police don't have the manpower, knowledge or facilities to compete with that - there were also problems at last season's Serbian Cup final, which was also staged in Krusevac, so they should have known the risks involved.

That's the real reason the Serbian FA have handed long bans onto the players.

 

The England players have been punished for not Shaking hands,like that twat Blatter Wants them to do,probably

 

IMO, they should go further. If nothing changes in regards to this blatant racism in places like Serbia, then the F.A. should just refuse to go back there. Tell UEFA that we don't send our players to places were they have to suffer this kind of abuse. There's just a chance that they may actually sit up and take notice.
If we don't make a stand, UEFA will just continue to gloss things over.

 

As I stated, if the game was held in Belgrade this wouldn't have happened.

Also, funny the British press are putting so much emphasis on this story. After all, it's not like there's any reason to, as there's been no stories involving John Terry, monkey chants, pitch invasions or coins being thrown at players at English grounds at any point in the last three months...

 

All those incidences got covered in the media and if those in the wrong get punished inadequately and Rio is also banned despite doing nothing wrong then I'm sure the media would be far more critical of the FA.

 

Whether you think it's warranted, or not, racial abuse is taken very seriously in English football. Whether some consider it no worse than other forms of abuse, is another matter. Personally, I think judging people by the colour of their skin is just plain ignorant.
The point is that if the F.A. wants to make UEFA aware of just how seriously they view the subject, then it seems to me that it will require a far firmer stance, than they have shown so far.

 

A four game ban for John Terry is taking it seriously?

As noted by PNP, the Serbian FA have banned Mudrinksi and Ninkovic from national games for a year. The FA dithered before taking the captain's armband from Terry, but he's still available to play for England.

 

One thing the media definitely need to stop bringing up is the fine given to Bendtner for ambush marketing. That fine was primarily to nullify any financial benefit he gained from the stunt and is neither here nor there in terms of fines for racism. It should be obvious without comparison that their fines are not working and whilst the size of the fine is always embarrassing, it's playing games behind closed doors and serious suspended punishments that needs to be made.