- Atletico Madrid v Arsenal: the signs from the season are in Arsenal’s favour
- Arsenal and Ateltico in the Champions League: the
By Tony Attwood
We have a new regulation coming into force for tonight’s game – and indeed subsequent matches in the Champions League, which is that the referee can red card a player who leaves the pitch in protest at a decision of the referee, and/or encourages other players to leave the field. If multiple players leave the field in protest, then they will be deemed to have forfeited the game.
This of course, could cause some problems, if a player leaves the field in response to repeated racist abuse from the crowd, so as ever with a suddenly introduced new Fifa arrangement, it appears they haven’t really thought this through, and we have to wait to see how it works out in practice.
Obviously, stopping racist abuse is incredibly important, and it is singularly unfortunate that a measure aimed at doing this is announced at the same time as the latest bit of nonsense surrounding Fifa, in which it appears that organisation is now so overwhelmed by its own importance that it has demanded a motorcade escort for Gio Infantino as he rides to the 76th annual Fifa Congress. Such a convoy would stop all other traffic and go through traffic lights – exactly as the convoy for the President of the United States is able to do.
In short Fifa is elevating itself to the status of a country. Presumably, it will also demand a seat at the United Nations with its ultimate ambition to be seen as a nation state, and thus have all the privileges that brings, such as its own tax code, its own passports…. We may well also see it demanding a seat in the United Nations in the near future. It puts the top man in FIFA on a par with the President of the United States, and thus with a higher status than other countries.
However, the demands still leave the Fifa cavalcade one level below that granted to the pope when he travels around in a country beyond the Vatican City, and surely it can’t be long before Fifa demand that level of accolade for a cavalcade.
What we can see from such demands is that Fifa and its top people do not see themselves as anything remotely like servants of the game, or indeed even in touch with those who play the game, pay to see the game, or are otherwise involved in the game. It is, in fact no longer a game but a set of state occasions.
So far, the local police have declined to provide the facilities requested, which was to be expected. But the demand sends out the signal to countries bidding for future events: if you want Fifa to bring a competition to your country, this is what you will be expected to provide. Personally, I can only hope the four countries of Great Britain don’t get tempted through their football associations for any more bids. But these people can be so full of themselves that you never really know.
Meanwhile, back with tonight and the actual playing of football, the weather forecast is looking a bit dodgy with heavy rain expected for the evening. Indeed, one report even mentions the possibility of an electrical storm.
But this is the ground on which Tottenham had a hard time in the last 16, and the pitch which Barcelona complained had grass that was too long. I must say I rather like the fact that. Mikel Arteta tends not to get involved in such tittle-tattle and instead just says that the players adapt to the pitch on which they have to play.
Updating on the team news, he also said that Havertz would not play – yesterday we thought there was a possibility, but Eze and Calafiori have both travelled to Spain.
Arsenal and Atletico have only met three times before. The first game was in April 2018 at Arsenal’s stadium in the Europa League, and that ended as a 1-1 draw. In the return game the following month, Arsenal lost 1-0.
However, last October you might recall that Arsenal beat Atletico Madrid 4-0 in London.
The goals for that game came from Gabriel, Martionelli, and then two from Gyokeres, and were all scored in the space of 13 minutes in the second half. Some more of that would be very welcome.
