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Sunday, August 09, 2009

At £100,000 a week, players should know the rules

I've given up making a special point of it to players in the Kent County League, but I usually take the opportunity at least once during every match to point at the brightly coloured piece of plastic in my hand and say, "play the whistle!". And if the local footballers, playing for no money whatsoever, can manage this, then there is absolutely no reason why the country's most highly paid players can't do likewise.
In the Community Shield final today, Man Utd's Patrice Evra was fouled by Michael Ballack. Evra went down holding his face after Ballack deliberately blocked his path. Chris Foy appears to have missed the foul. Man Utd kept the ball but then lost it and Chelsea broke forward, scoring through Frank Lampard while Evra lay on the ground.
Having decided there was no foul, what should the Man Utd players do. Stand there complaining about the referee and about Chelsea not kicking the ball out of play or get back into defence. Unfortunately for them they chose the former and Chelsea, quite justifiably, did what they're paid to do and scored.
Having decided Ballack had not fouled Evra and that his injury was not severe enough to justify stopping play, Foy was right to play on and Man Utd were wrong to expect play to stop. That said, Ballack was lucky to escape a yellow. Evra was immediately up and about.
One thing that was depressing about this season opener was the sight of Man Utd players surrounding the referee to argue with his decision. This must stop and premier league refs need to help the rest of the country's officials out by getting the cards out to these offenders.
Apart from all this, it was a cracking match. As usual the Man Utd and Chelsea fans almost came to blows in Fat Ref's household, while the new addition to the family, three month old Golden Retriever pup Lille Venn, has turned out to be a Blues supporter.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The concluding statement regarding where Lilla's loyalties lie was almost as funny as Patrice Evras penalty.
Jack