One of the unavoidable truths of life is that you reap what you sow. European football's hapless governing body, UEFA, have discovered that – again – this week, though that of course is no guarantee that they will learn anything from their discovery. In their case, they seem content – happy even, like a recalcitrant and ignorant child – to keep on sowing the wind and reaping the whirlwind.
And wind is what this body does best, releasing large amounts at regular intervals as they sound off in a manner presumably designed to drown out those voices who would wish to remind them that their role is to be the servant of the game of football in Europe and not its master.
UEFA's latest blunder was to appoint for the Champions League semi-final between Barcelona and Chelsea a referee who fouled up at his first major tournament (last year's European Championships) – a performance so poor that UEFA themselves chose to stand him down from any further matches at that tournament.
Tom Henning Øvrebø will be needing to draw on every bit of his experience as a psychologist to deal with the flak coming his way after his latest performance at Stamford Bridge, which Chelsea manager Guus Hiddink – a model of dignity, as many of those around him lost their head – labelled "the worst I have ever seen" Having watched the game myself, it' hard to argue with that assessment.
Although a lot of the talk will be about Didier Drogba' "It's a fucking disgrace" rant – delivered from point-blank range into the television camera and directly to millions of Sky viewers in the UK – the real issue here is why a bloke from a Mickey Mouse league who's not a very good referee, and who's proved that to the satisfaction of UEFA, should be allowed to referee such an important match?
For the record, he denied Chelsea at least one clear penalty (a handball by Gerald Piqué – even Piqué said he was surprised a penalty wasn't awarded), and another decision to award a direct free kick six inches outside the penalty area was for an offence that took place inside the penalty area and so should have been a penalty.
Although his hopeless refereeing prevented Chelsea from taking their place in the final (where Manchester United await), he showed he was not biased – at least, not overtly so – by sending off a Barcelona player for acting as a "virtual" springboard for a dive from Nicolas Anelka. I say "not overtly biased" advisedly, because UEFA President Michel Platini (who lost the tag "great" when he swapped a player's role for that of an administrator) has been telling anyone who'll listen that another European Cup Final between two English clubs would be bad for football.
Well, Platini's got his way, but at what cost? In every way that really matters, Platini's words have been far more damaging for the game than Drogba's outburst.
And wind is what this body does best, releasing large amounts at regular intervals as they sound off in a manner presumably designed to drown out those voices who would wish to remind them that their role is to be the servant of the game of football in Europe and not its master.
UEFA's latest blunder was to appoint for the Champions League semi-final between Barcelona and Chelsea a referee who fouled up at his first major tournament (last year's European Championships) – a performance so poor that UEFA themselves chose to stand him down from any further matches at that tournament.
Tom Henning Øvrebø will be needing to draw on every bit of his experience as a psychologist to deal with the flak coming his way after his latest performance at Stamford Bridge, which Chelsea manager Guus Hiddink – a model of dignity, as many of those around him lost their head – labelled "the worst I have ever seen" Having watched the game myself, it' hard to argue with that assessment.
Although a lot of the talk will be about Didier Drogba' "It's a fucking disgrace" rant – delivered from point-blank range into the television camera and directly to millions of Sky viewers in the UK – the real issue here is why a bloke from a Mickey Mouse league who's not a very good referee, and who's proved that to the satisfaction of UEFA, should be allowed to referee such an important match?
For the record, he denied Chelsea at least one clear penalty (a handball by Gerald Piqué – even Piqué said he was surprised a penalty wasn't awarded), and another decision to award a direct free kick six inches outside the penalty area was for an offence that took place inside the penalty area and so should have been a penalty.
Although his hopeless refereeing prevented Chelsea from taking their place in the final (where Manchester United await), he showed he was not biased – at least, not overtly so – by sending off a Barcelona player for acting as a "virtual" springboard for a dive from Nicolas Anelka. I say "not overtly biased" advisedly, because UEFA President Michel Platini (who lost the tag "great" when he swapped a player's role for that of an administrator) has been telling anyone who'll listen that another European Cup Final between two English clubs would be bad for football.
Well, Platini's got his way, but at what cost? In every way that really matters, Platini's words have been far more damaging for the game than Drogba's outburst.
5 comments:
Obviously a pissed off Blue. Drogba behaved like an animal.
No, I'm a United fan, and pleased to be getting Barca for the final.
The systematic failures of UEFA are more important than one isolated incident, however misguided.
Chelsea are the worst losers in the world. They have no class and I am sad as an Englishman that JT is, for some reason I will never fathom, our captain. They lost the tie not because of the referees bad decisions (although bad they were), but because given the cards they were dealt (poor refereeing decisions against Barca in the first leg, and 1-0 up against 10 men in this leg) they were unable to finish the match off and gave Barca the chance to get back in. But it's easier to scream obscenities at a TV camera and blame the ref.
Stop talking about what happened and talk about why UEFA, Platini, the football league will not support the refs in making good decisions. We can't say there is no money to invest. SKY/BBC help out look at the increase in suspense when videos are used in Rugby/Tennis/Ice Hockey etc etc. Drogba could give a weeks pay and pay for video equipment if he is so mad just to test it a Chelsea.
Rugby league led the way in this as in so many aspects, ensuring that by and large the right decisions were made by using the multitude of cameras and expertise available at matches. Tennis, and now cricket, have made referrals to the "video ref" part of the entertainment. And yet football continues to slop around in the dark ages.
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