UEFA are a bunch of spineless....

[Rob S]

...spineless things!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/8236689.stm

Didn't want to open up a can of worms re diving so they let him off....thus leaving it to somebody else to be only the second person banned for deceiving the ref in the future.

 

[Billloudon]

There was contact though and in todays modern game playing in the Champions league, of course you will go down.

He is and was a diver. He deserved a yellow, at least, on the night.
It was right that he should have been banned. What lessons are we teaching our young players. Dive if you can, boys there is a good chance we will get a penalty and if it's caught on TV you'll get away with it as they are all scared stiff.
Arsenal and Eduardo should hang their heads in shame.

 

[Rob S]

There was contact though and in todays modern game playing in the Champions league, of course you will go down.

It shouldn't be down to whether a hair on his leg was brushed by a thread on the goalie's glove...he dived as he knew he couldn't score at that point...he deceived the ref by making out he was knocked off his feet by this minimal if any contact.
UEFA are soft on cheats....like they reduced Dida's antics against Celtic, then they are completely stubborn when it comes to things like the incident that led to Darren Ferguson missing the CL final.

 

[Mr Pig]

Let's be frank here, football is a joke. It's designed to be controversial and impossible to play correctly as that's the only thing that makes it interesting. What would the knuckleheads talk about without the constant supply of bad refereeing decisions and cheating incidents? I mean, how often do games end with zero goals? So no one wins and nothing happens for an hour-and-a-half, woopy flippin doo!

But we woz robbed! The ref'sa baasturd. Without that you've got nothing and that's why they'll never fix it.

Oh they could, really easily. Official in the stand watching the replay, 'Was is a dive?' 'Yes it was'. Simple. But where's the fun in that?

 

[Rob S]

That would be Darren Fletcher, you cannot be flexible when exercising the rule book.

D'oh...I'm always calling him Ferguson!!

But its laws, not rules.

 

[MarkF]

There's diving to cheat and there's diving to "roll" with the anticipated, imminent challenge thus reducing the impact and possibility of injury. Boruc was slow to move off, everybody thought he would make contact and everybody thought he did. Let's face it, it took "slow mo" to prove otherwise, looked a bang on penalty from the ref's view as well.

I don't think you can say with certainty that Eduardo dived to cheat, I'm happy for him not to be banned and Celtic are my team.

Mr Pig, since video ref's have been used in Rugby League, all the fun has gone out of it for me. I want controversy, I've no interest in it now. There is only one thing better than your team scoring and that is your rivals having a perfectly good goal disallowed.

 

[Mr Pig]

since video ref's have been used in Rugby League, all the fun has gone out of it for me. I want controversy.

That's my point.

 

[ComedyPilot]

A cheat is a cheat.

 

[Billloudon]

It shouldn't be down to whether a hair on his leg was brushed by a thread on the goalie's glove...he dived as he knew he couldn't score at that point...he deceived the ref by making out he was knocked off his feet by this minimal if any contact.
UEFA are soft on cheats....like they reduced Dida's antics against Celtic, then they are completely stubborn when it comes to things like the incident that led to Darren Ferguson missing the CL final.

Correct. I forgive the Fletcher bit

 

[rich p]

I don't get why singled out Eduardo. Footballers go down like they've been shot by snipers and writhe around in feigned agony all the time.

 

[PaulB]

What kind of precedent would that have set though? It completely undermines the authority of the referee on the pitch and the same rules have to apply at Champions League level as at grass roots level. If there are numerous camera angles for a panel to view, then there should be multiple camera angles for a panel to view at Torquay and Exeter and Northwich Vics. It was never anything more than UEFA flexing their muscles and seeing what could be done to hamstring English club sides.

 

[Mr Pig]

A cheat is a cheat.

Unless it's a football player. It that case a cheat is a guy who gets paid millions and worshiped like a god.

 

[Rob S]

It doesn't undermine the ref's authority as he gave his decision from his point of view...a penalty.....the tv evidence showed he was deceived and so Eduardo should be punished. Red cards are rescinded from time to time with not much thought...why not the other way round.

 

[PaulB]

It doesn't undermine the ref's authority as he gave his decision from his point of view...a penalty.....the tv evidence showed he was deceived and so Eduardo should be punished. Red cards are rescinded from time to time with not much thought...why not the other way round.

It does though. The principle must stand that the referee's decision is final. Tinker with that at your peril. The ref said it was a penalty and it's a penalty, end of story. Retrospective punishments make no sense at all as Celtic will still be out. Common sense has descended on the twerps at UEFA.

 

[MarkF]

It doesn't undermine the ref's authority as he gave his decision from his point of view...a penalty.....the tv evidence showed he was deceived and so Eduardo should be punished.

Why? You still can't say, with conviction, that Eduardo dived to cheat rather than dived expecting impact. The latter happens in every single footie game, it's common sense not cheating, this incident was way to close to ban Eduardo.

Anyway, I like the diving and rolling around bits.