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Saturday, September 20, 2008

Respect? Aretha Franklin makes more sense

Well the F.A.'s Respect campaign seemed to last about two weeks in the premier division. David Moyes sent to the stands, Ferguson virtually accusing Keith Hackett of being a cheat and Chelsea's players indulging in all the old tricks and getting away with them.
The Terry incident and its repercussions were very interesting and I'm sure things have happened that have not been aired in public. Just why did Mark Halsey send him off? DOGSO? Pretty clearly not. Serious Foul Play? It hardly falls into the usual category for an offence that is normally a nasty foul that can cause injury.
Perhaps Halsey invoked that old adage called common sense and said to himself. 'well there's no specific offence in the book covered by what Terry just did but it's totally against the spirit of football and he deserves a red." All well and good and I think he's right, but he should have known the writing was on the wall when Terry turned up for his F.A. hearing with a barrister in tow.
Terry's foul was a yellow card offence according to the LOAF, even if it was cynical in the extreme. So the red was incorrect. Overturning the red card was fair enough - and no referees should worry about that happening - but a ref of Halsey's stature did not deserve the humiliation of being dropped to League 2. That was childish and unfair.

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