No surprises that we are not hearing more about the FA's illogical and cowardly decision. Heard it mentioned a couple of times that AVB was not happy, but that was the extent of the reporting for what is IMHO a rather fundamental problem. Or at least it should be if the rules were applied equally to all teams. I don't think it is outside the realms of possibility that if the assault had happened to a ManU or Chelsea player, then the rules could just as easily be interpreted differently, i.e. the scratcing incident would not be considered part of the earlier incident (again, still can't get my head round this mad rule), and since the officials didn't see it *specifically* then retrospective punishment could be applied. Talking about double standards, can you imagine how exactly the same incident could have been played out with different players / teams involved? Firstly the player scratched might well have fallen to the floor clutching his face and writhing in agony - that in itself might have been enough to get the offender sent off (please don't tell me that players haven't been sent off before when the ref didn't see the incident but worked out what happened). Secondly the offended team might have surrounded the ref, their manager might be in the fact of the 4th official etc. Thirdly the manager would not stop going on about it in post match interviews and fourthly the incident itself and the players reaction would be the subject of extensive reporting and scrutiny by the media. Why has this not happened? Because it didn't happen to a player of certain teams. I'm not singling out Spurs here - any team that wasn't one of the media favourites is similarly disadvantaged.
As our resident Iranian lunatic pointed out at the time, the rules may have changed, but the game's still the same. All teams will be treated equally, it's just that some will be treated more equally than others.
Nobody seemed to care when Aguero planted one on Luiz. What I don't get is why the FA bent the rules to ban Ivanovic but not for Torres.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24847724 The rules are now in place \o/ They won't apply to this weekend so queue a lot of biting, scratching and stamping as everyone gets it out of their systems.
