Sunday 30 August 2009

Which Witch?

I hope FIFA, UEFA, The FA, The RICS, Ofcom, The ASA, RoSPA, UNESCO, The RSPB and the Co-Op are all called in to look at Wayne Rooney's penalty winning dive from yesterday.
Yes, that's DIVE.
D. I. V. E.

Watch his back leg below; totally pre-meditated going to ground before any contact is made. Isn't that exactly what Eduardo is accused of against Celtic? Attempting to influence the referee through unfair means? Yes, it is. So I await the outcome of the forthcoming Rooney investigation with keen interest. Everyone seems to be calling for a two match ban for this kind of thing; Sir Alex will be ever so pleased. You want a witch hunt? Sure, we can do that too.


By the way, unlike Celtic I'm not saying that this decision cost us the game (we managed to throw that away ourselves, unfortunately) but simply that every single incident of this kind must be treated exactly the same from now on, and closely investigated using all the available technology.

Or is that not what everyone wants, suddenly? Well?

12 comments:

  1. ahh, I've missed this. 3 months without you railing about the injustices dealt to your team by the powers that be. You're starting to sound like me, only worse.

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  2. Be interesting to see how they do such a thing in the Sunday leagues.

    Oh, right. Not *that* fair then? ;)

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  3. can I just point out that you've managed to pick a clip where it looks like a bonafide penalty? try and find one from the side, better angle to support your argument imo.

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  4. @Dazzla: I said every single incident of this kind must be "closely investigated using all the available technology". In the Sunday leagues, at least the ones I have played in, they weren't televised by Sky. So the "available technology" is the referee. I'm not suggesting there should be 12 cameras at every park kickabout match, but when they /are/ there, use them.

    Having said that, if you dived in my Sunday league you got told to "fucking get up, you silly bastard", mostly by the ref.

    @Rowan: With all due respect, piffle. He clearly starts to fall (watch the back leg drag) before the keeper has touched him. Therefore it is a pre-meditated decision to go to ground and was not caused by the actions of the keeper. Just because he subsequently fell over his arms, does not remove the fact that the intent was there BEFORE the challenge. So it's a dive.

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  5. can't see it myself; you obviously have fourstar hd technology running.

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  6. ho ho ho, perhaps your good self and Monsieur Wenger should also pop down there. Perhaps get yourself a sense of proportion while you're at it.

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  7. Sense of proportion? My aching sides!

    Given the hyperbolic reaction of the SFA, the media and UEFA to the Eduardo incident, I feel we've been a paragon of restraint.

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  8. (a) that was a premiership match, not a european match, so it falls under the FA, not UEFA. The FA follow FIFA direction, so I would not expect them to change their policy in response to UEFAs seeming change.

    (b) that looked like a penalty to me

    (c) football isn't fair, it's almost entirely random

    :)

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  9. Doug.

    a) Fair point. I await the Champions League Group Stages with interest.

    b) I absolutely agree with your right to see it that way, even though you are clearly wrong.

    c) Obviously, but what would we talk about if it wasn't?

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