http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/16118218.stm Having read the above I find myself wondering if the managers need to take some time off as they are clearly feeling the stress. The FA appealed (as any league club could) against a ban that would make an important player unavailable for the first three games of the competition. UEFA is the body (The FA in this instance) who accepted and lowered the ban on Rooney to two games. I fail to understand how this can be classed as the FA giving "double standards" when dealing with appeals as they were the appealing party in this instance. If the managers want to moan about the appeals process they should be accusing UEFA of "double standards" - The FA didn't decide to lower the ban. UEFA did. Doh!
It's all a waste of time..........will it matter if Rooney is playing or not..........we'll get stuffed anyrate............and probably not even get through the group stage.
I think it was quite right - although potentially risky - to appeal. Rooney was blocked off by the defender and then stupidly kicked out. Whilst a red card was the only option I suppose, the defender should have been penalised for the block. Then - of course - despite the contact being pretty minor, the defender went down as though shot by a sniper and writhed in feigned agony for about 15 seconds before deciding instead that springing to his feet and remonstrating with Rooney was the best way to get him sent off. I'm afraid if I was refereeing, such pathetic play-acting would have induced me to give the defender a yellow and merely tell Rooney to stop being stupid.
Which is why you are not a Ref notdistant. The Ref has no option but to send a player off in those circumstances and if he didn't he would be slaughtered for it. You defended our own Bignot in much the same way as I recall and you clearly have a one way view of these things. The bottom line is that both him and Rooney are experienced professional players. They know full well that if they kick out, no matter what contact is or isn't made, they are going to get a Red card. The rules state this will happen and irrespective of what else the Ref should or shouldn't do he was right in both cases to follow the rules. If ALL players stopped the acting then life would be a lot easier to swallow when these decisions are made but it is all of them and Rooney would do exactly the same if it was the other way around and we all know it. By appealling the FA appear to be condoning violent conduct when they punish domestic players for the same thing. I can see the point of the double standards claims even if they are playing the part of the club on this occasion.
I agree sensible for the most part, I think however since England is not a club but an international team then the FA had to get involved if Capello felt that there was grounds for appeal. Then again I don't remember the FA appealing to FIFA when Beckham got sent off against Argentina in 1998. What Distant says is partly true though the players like the Montenegro defender who clearly exaggerated his injury to have Rooney sent off should have been warned. This happens all the time in football and it is pathetic. However the Montenegro player apparently did write to UEFA stating that he felt it was more frustration on Rooneys part and not violent intent that led to the contact.
I was making the comparison in involvement when I said playing the part of the club. Clubs appeal to the FA normally but in this case the FA are the equivalent of the club management and have appealed as a club management would to them if it was in the league. As I've said, ALL players seem to over egg contact made and to be honest in a lot of cases look very silly to us when we see it especially on the tv. With slowmo and 20 different angles it shows how minimal the contact often is. You get pundits saying "He felt a touch and was always going to go down in that position". To us it is cheating but to the professionals it is a way of life. Personally I hate all of the simulation that goes on even if it is at Home Park and one of ours who does it. In the Rooney case the player got kicked and the Ref saw it. There was no need to fall around on the park as if his leg had been removed with a chainsaw but that is what they do and Rooney would have probably done the same if the boot was on the oppositions foot. What a lesson for youngsters watching it is.
Sensible Do you not read what I write? "Whilst a red card was the only option I suppose" My point is that cynical play-acting, feigned injury, diving and blocking players off the ball is far more corrosive to the game than the odd stupid kick. The latter was duly punished with a card but in my opinion a 3 game suspension was excessive - I believe EUFA classified it as some kind of assault similar to punching an opponent, which is laughable and the FA were quite right to appeal it. The defender wasn't punished at all. And finally, it doesn't matter what the professionals say - diving etc IS cheating by any proper measure of behaviour and we'd have a much better game if referees were instructed to root it out. If we're going to point at things that are corrosive to the game, what about Dalglish's campaign of defence of Suarez? Fans chant "cheat" at him because he is a cheat and a very skilful and prolific one! Dalglish has apparently bemoaned the fact that Suarez gets too little "protection" from referees. Which referee is going to give Suarez free kicks when it's patently obvious that he's diving on every possible occasion? Apparently, when Jurgen Klinsmann joined Spurs back in 1994, somebody at the club had a word in his ear and told him in no uncertain terms that the diving he was famous for wouldn't do in England and he went on to become a very popular figure. How things have changed in 15 years!
Klinsmann spent the whole of his Spurs career diving around.............far more than Tom Daley ever does............it became a on going joke.
But he did tone it down from the extravagant heights of diving for Germany etc. Anyway, that's not the point. In 1994, Spurs told him not to dive as it wasn't acceptable in England. In 2011, Dalglish says Suarez isn't a diver whereas we can all see he is. Here's a good one, albeit Scottish. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/16091669.stm Ally McCoist says that isn't a dive. Yeah, and I'm not only a Dutchman, I'm Johan Cryuff.
No need to sound like a school master notdistant I did read your post. It is the begrudged sounding "I suppose" that you added in. There isn't any I suppose in these cases irrespective of provocation. Maybe they were both fouled or at least they thought they were but there is no excuse for the response in the heat of the moment or not. Provocation goes on all of the time and to be fair always has so that isn't a new phenomenum is it. Diving isn't new either but the one thing we do agree on is that it is damned annoying and cheating. With the pace of the game now which is much faster than it was, it is hard for Refs to see it as cheating in some cases. Some are blatant of course but players have become masters of diguise when it comes to challenges and Refs do have an almost impossible task. With the cameras picking up things from 50 different angles these days I cannot see why the FA cannot look at these after a game and act then with the hindsight of proof positive if a dive takes place. They do this with violent conduct off the ball if a Ref doesn't see it and cameras do so why not this. They would have to give the benefit of the doubt to some but they would get a lot of others and they should ban them for matches like they do for other offences after the event. Maybe players would then think twice and also managers who defend it. But, it isn't going to happen anytime soon is it sadly. This is one import from the Continent that they could have kept to themselves because it only really started with the import of players from there and South America.
It's hard to believe that many moons ago it was legal to barge the goalkeeper into the net whilst holding the ball.
Or tackle come to that.......... It's the Messi syndrome - it's now an offence for a defender to come within 5 yards of him while the ball's in play.
