"I Just Want To Win"

Its Official folks, Eduardo has been handed a two game ban by Uefa for his supposed dive in the game against Celtic at the Emirates last week. With the decision Uefa feels it has culminated the controversy and has come out unscathed. Or is it? We at 11Gunners look into the Pro’s and Con’s of the blasphemy Uefa is trying to prophesize..

Uefa’s Official statement on the punishment handed out to Dudu:

“The Uefa Control and Disciplinary Body today examined the Case of Arsenal FC player Eduardo for “for deceiving the referee” during the Uefa Champions League play-off second leg match on 26 August against Celtic FC, and has suspended the player for two Uefa club competition matches.”

Arsenal FC’s Official statement on the same:

The Club is disappointed with Uefa’s decision to suspend Eduardo for two Champions League matches. We have been deeply frustrated by the ‘Perfunctory’ and apparently ‘Arbitrary’ process that Uefa has followed in this instance. We believe it is imperative that Uefa’s explanation for its decision provides clear and comprehensive standards that will be consistently enforced.”

Arsene’e view on Uefa’s decision and more:

“I find it a complete disgrace and unacceptable. We won’t accept the way we have been treated in this case for two reasons. I believe you can debate whether it was a penalty or not. For me it’s a ‘Witch-Hunt’ that we see and not an objective judgement of a case.”

“The charge implies there was intent and a desire to cheat the referee. It singles out one player in Europe to be a cheat and that is not acceptable. Uefa has taken action that is not defendable.”

“There are players who play only to make fouls who are never punished and they get a result out of the game. That for me is more ‘Anti-Football’ than a player like Eduardo who did what Eduardo did.”

All said and done its We, the Arsenal, who have made scapegoats by Uefa/FA yet again. The parameters always seem slightly more tweaked when decisions are to be made against us. Is it just me who thinks this or what! Players like Rivaldo, Maradona, Deco, Drogba, Gerrard, Rooney and most notably the most notorious of them all, Ronaldo, have been Legends at this art and were they ever booked, ever? NO! Take the case of the current Fifa World Player of the Year, Cristiano Ronaldo, a player whose spectacular execution of free-kicks often covers up the dubious means by which he earns them! For six seasons in England, he has been the worst diver around. So frequent were his feints on the pitch, that even legitimate fouls were overlooked in his case. Talk of irony! Now consider the ‘Golden Boys’ of England; Rooney and Gerrard. Be it Rooney’s fall against Bolton or Gerrard’s against lowly Andorra, they were a sight of misery no less. But they are FA’s favourite sons for nothing! The Barca faithful won’t ever forget two of their most famous sons either, Maradona and Rivaldo. But what makes them forget the wily theatrics these two greats of the game employed despite them being masterly gifted to get things done in a correct way, bewilders me no ends. And then come the Blues. Deco and Drogba are names synonymous with diving. Drogba again, despite his physical prowess, almost comically capers to the ground at mere sight of timid defenders. And all of his has been around for some time now. Or shall I say time immemorial.

• But has the, now famous, ‘Article 10, Paragraph 1c of the Uefa disciplinary regulations’ been looked into any of the above cases? No!
• Has the referee’s decision in the above cases, been reconsidered, and then adequate action been taken to hand out appropriate punishments? No!
• Is there a guarantee that from now on every such incident will be taken in equanimity? No!

Ofcourse Not! McGeady’s dive in the Scottish League just a few days back, Torres’s easy tumble last weekend and most famously Rooney’s ‘Making-the-Most-of-it-Moment’ against Arsenal, were all overlooked, as expected by Uefa/Far/Fifa whatever. And I’m pretty sure same was the case in all the big and small leagues across Europe and it shall be the same henceforth. Then why only Arsenal?

Uefa is setting a precedent for righting wrongs it cannot hope to sustain. Football is supposed to be a game played in the ‘Spur of the Moment.’ If Uefa plan to analyze each second of what happens during a game and then hand out goodies a week after, and do it with every single game played across Europe, every single matchday, then hurray, atleast 10000 new Job Openings are here because they’ll need bags full of people to get this done! But on a more serious note, if they really want to weed out the problem of diving, then provisions should be made to incorporate more referee’s, video replays for the Referees et al, to ensure the issue is sorted out then and there itself. We all love the Beautiful Game, don’t we? Uefa please don’t spoil the fun by getting biased against a team which plays the game most beautifully!

“Come what may, Football must not take a Dive because of a ‘Few Good’ol Men’!”