O/T - Chelsea, Referees and Respect : Fri May 08, 2009 4:21 pm
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While you could understand Chelsea fans being miffed at the failure of the ref to award at least 2 penalties to their team, here is a perfect example of where players could have taken a leaf out of RL's book and taken the defeat on the chin, shook hands and walked off the pitch with dignity. The talking could and should be done afterwards.
There are plenty of hotheads and conspiracy theorists in all sports who can't wait to get stuck in, but IMHO the obscene reactions of Drogba and Ballack in particular have greatly inflamed the situation, and the fans have followed their lead, so that now we have death threats, police guards and another referee maybe driven out of refereeing under possible threats to the safety of himself and even his family. The fact that this was a Champions League semi final doesn't make his decisions any worse, but does help to keep the Chelsea players out of another big final. Although it equally does help to get the Barca players into the same final. So what? It was just another game of football. That discussions and analysis and criticism should take place afterwards is entirely right and fair, but how some of the players reacted should be met with very lengthy bans, and the manager suggesting he supports their behaviour should earn Chelsea a stiff penalty too. Like a ban from Europe for failing to control their players. Too many are looking to excuse Drogba, but he had no need to lose it like he did, he could have kept his temper under control and instead chose to lose the plot. He needs to be made an example of. Player behaviour has blown the thing up into a very seriously nasty incident, and if they had managed to behave like men, like rugby league players, not like spoilt brats, then they would have gone up in my estimation. Instead we got what we got, especially from the wildman Drogba, and the pantomime from Ballack. When Kipling wrote of triumph and disaster, I don't think he had these sort of hysterical, overpaid crybabies in mind. Mind you, I wonder what the reaction on these boards would be if the RFL had done for a Cup semi what UEFA did and posted, pre-match, a report on their website giving the correct score, stating that Barcelona would draw with a late goal, and even correctly giving out bookings?  |
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While you could understand Chelsea fans being miffed at the failure of the ref to award at least 2 penalties to their team, here is a perfect example of where players could have taken a leaf out of RL's book and taken the defeat on the chin, shook hands and walked off the pitch with dignity. The talking could and should be done afterwards.
There are plenty of hotheads and conspiracy theorists in all sports who can't wait to get stuck in, but IMHO the obscene reactions of Drogba and Ballack in particular have greatly inflamed the situation, and the fans have followed their lead, so that now we have death threats, police guards and another referee maybe driven out of refereeing under possible threats to the safety of himself and even his family. The fact that this was a Champions League semi final doesn't make his decisions any worse, but does help to keep the Chelsea players out of another big final. Although it equally does help to get the Barca players into the same final. So what? It was just another game of football. That discussions and analysis and criticism should take place afterwards is entirely right and fair, but how some of the players reacted should be met with very lengthy bans, and the manager suggesting he supports their behaviour should earn Chelsea a stiff penalty too. Like a ban from Europe for failing to control their players. Too many are looking to excuse Drogba, but he had no need to lose it like he did, he could have kept his temper under control and instead chose to lose the plot. He needs to be made an example of. Player behaviour has blown the thing up into a very seriously nasty incident, and if they had managed to behave like men, like rugby league players, not like spoilt brats, then they would have gone up in my estimation. Instead we got what we got, especially from the wildman Drogba, and the pantomime from Ballack. When Kipling wrote of triumph and disaster, I don't think he had these sort of hysterical, overpaid crybabies in mind. Mind you, I wonder what the reaction on these boards would be if the RFL had done for a Cup semi what UEFA did and posted, pre-match, a report on their website giving the correct score, stating that Barcelona would draw with a late goal, and even correctly giving out bookings? |
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