On the Ball (new Football Focus)

[red devil]

Keef Wrote:

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> Tevez hatrick anyone?

http://www.oleole.com/media/main/images/member_photos/group1/subgrp251/welcometotheendofyou_279734.jpg

[matthew123]

Ooooh the Mancs running scared of Citeh who'd have believed it - and I bet they'll be popping the champagne if Adebayor get's his ban before the derby this weekend

[red devil]

http://www.whoateallthepies.tv/spot-the-difference-tshirt_design.jpg

[Mick Mac]

eduardo wins appeal. Uefa have no balls.

[matthew123]

Didn't Celtic have 2 players making blatant dives in their following SPL game, one of which saw McGeady sent off?

Shame about UEFA - whether or not there was minimal contact is irrelevent as he was already going to ground before the phantom clip of the heel. A strong message had been sent but now it seems UEFA is condoning simulation / diving for the cleverest players.

[Ladygooner]

I think the whole point of contact is very relevant.

[Judy2]

matthew123 Wrote:

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> Didn't Celtic have 2 players making blatant dives

> in their following SPL game, one of which saw

> McGeady sent off?

>

> Shame about UEFA - whether or not there was

> minimal contact is irrelevent as he was already

> going to ground before the phantom clip of the

> heel. A strong message had been sent but now it

> seems UEFA is condoning simulation / diving for

> the cleverest players.

Strong message? dive and you get a ban - complain/appeal and you will be ok. What strong message.

Uefa are a farce. Make the right decision and stick to it.

[Mick Mac]

What Judy said......

[matthew123]

Ladygooner Wrote:

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> I think the whole point of contact is very

> relevant.

Would he have gone down like that if he was running for the bus? Course not. There may have been some contact like the wind blowing through his hair but that should not give the right to hit the turf like he'd been shot in the back. We need to get away from this, someone brushes your baggy shorts and automatically you have the right to perform a triple backward somersault. It's wrong.

As for Celtic taking the moral ground well that was blown out of the water with their own diving antics just a few days later. It's unfortunate but likes of UEFA and FA have a knee jerk reaction to these things and once it dies down in the media they tend to lose their resolve for action. Once Adebayor gets his ban for celebrating in front of the Arsenal fans there will be an outcry in the media about worse celebratory offences that went unpunished. I suspect what Adebayor did will be repeated by someone else but next time it'll be all about 'if the fans dish it out they got to take it as well'.

[????]

Good to see there are some decent people in football still

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/paulfletcher/2009/09/carl_baker_and_stockport_an_ex.html#138740

[Keef]

Touching story that.

[Atila Reincarnate]

red devil Wrote:

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> http://www.whoateallthepies.tv/spot-the-difference

> -tshirt_design.jpg

No difference each picture shows a c**t. B)

[Mick Mac]

???? Wrote:

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> Good to see there are some decent people in

> football still

>

> http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/paulfletcher/2009/09/ca

> rl_baker_and_stockport_an_ex.html#138740

That is what football needs to remind itself of now and again. We are all people living normal lives at the end of the day.

[jimmy two times]

The proposed 2 game ban was for simulation and attempting to fool the ref into giving a penalty. However, if this can not be proved unequivocally then there should be no ban. If you watch the alleged diving incident the keeper's knee appears to clip Eduardo. This would throw an elemant of doubt, however unlikely, upon whether he dived or not.

[Mick Mac]

Arsene Wenger - We proved he was actually touched and he had to go down. Sorry - what a load of absolute bollox Arsene.

This is not a team v team issue or a moral high ground issue (matt!), I just hate cheating, I hate even more UEFA being feeble and buckling under pressure and I hate even more the Arsene Wenger/Eduardo double act saying patronisingly that justice has been done.

The whole thing is a joke and diving will be a plague on the game as much as ever. UEFA will not now ever have the balls to charge a player with diving as they will never get a more blatent dive in a widely viewed match.

To deal with the contact issue - anyone who says Eduardo was touched and therefore he did not dive or attempt to mislead the referee is missing the point - any objective person can see that Eduardo decided to fall and was 2/3 down before this alleged contact could have taken place.

If you fall over before being touched - that is a dive. Anyone that protects Eduardo is protecting a cheat. Bad news for football.

[Atila Reincarnate]

Mick Mac Wrote:

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any objective person can see that Eduardo

decided to fall and was 2/3 down before this

alleged contact could have taken place.

And of course your veiws are in no way subjective at all are they. If you are so objective why haven't you taken your own players to task or berated their diving? It's because you are a Celtic supporter and your opinion is therefore, by default, bound to be subjective. Get over it, you are out of the Champs league and in the Europa League, turn your attention to that. If you don't like ungentlemanly conduct, or unsporting behaviour why are you not berating the antics of Adebayor and Scholes during the last weekend?

[Mick Mac]

Its not a team issue and I'm not going to mention Celtic. Its just a good opportunity missed by UEFA.

[Atila Reincarnate]

Mick Mac Wrote:

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> Its not a team issue and I'm not going to mention

> Celtic. Its just a good opportunity missed by

> UEFA.

You're not going to mention Celtic but it's not a team issue. Have a word with yourself. (!)

[matthew123]

Anyone see the penalty awarded against Real Madrid last night? It was worse than Eduardo. If UEFA had stuck to their original punishment then perhaps the Zurich player may have thought twice before diving. It's a shame but UEFA reversing their decision is worse than if they'd swept the original Eduardo incident under the carpet.

Good to see Ronaldo fitting in at Real Madrid with his new team mates. All Guti had to do was make a 10 yard square pass for him to complete his hat-trick in front of an empty goal - but instead Guti made it 5-2 with an audacious 20 yard chip over the keeper.

Not sure where Flamini learnt his tackling skills but his two footed torpedo lunge against Marseille was pure thuggary - but I guess it's a sign of how weak UEFA Rules are that the Ref only dished out a yellow card.

[Atila Reincarnate]

Both Flamini and the guy he went in on had gone in with both feet up and studs showing, bloody ridiculous.

[Tony.London Suburbs]

matthew123 Wrote:

Anyone see the penalty awarded against Real Madrid last night? It was worse than Eduardo. If UEFA had stuck to their original punishment then perhaps the Zurich player may have thought twice before diving.

As the clocks were ticking you could Bank on the Zurich player doing a Swiss Roll to gain the Penalty.

Hard Cheese on Real though.

[Mick Mac]

Football writer Oliver Holt believes UEFA were wrong to rescind their ban of Arsenal striker Eduardo, after the Brazilian born Croatian dived against Celtic. The respected sports correspondent intimates UEFA?s actions now suggests diving will be tolerated in the modern game.

Holt told mirrorfootball.co.uk: ?Uefa have made fools of themselves by climbing down over their suspension of Eduardo for diving against Celtic.?

He added: ?Their instinct might have been correct but it had no real precedent and their decision to rescind the Croatian?s ban amounts to nothing less than a diver?s charter.?

[matthew123]

Exactly what I said Mick - do you think he reads the EDF for his material? lol

[Atila Reincarnate]

An altenate view to that is on the Sky Sports website on which Andy Gray (a scotsman) states that he doesn't believe Eduardo did anything to merit a ban in the Celtic ban. Nuff said, opinions are like arseholes, everyone has one.

[ratty]

YAWN