Eduardo, as you may recall, was violently assaulted while playing for Arsenal against Birmingham City. As a result the player who committed the assault was given a three match ban.
Now Hleb, the Arsenal player, has been given exactly the same punishment for a dainty tap on the face of a Reading player.
So there we have it – you can lunge at a player so badly that he almost loses a leg and won’t play for nine months, and get a 3 match ban. You can give a little tap to the side of of the face which hardly makes contact, and get a three match ban.
Worse, when FIFA tried to intervene to give a much higher penalty to the Birmingham “player” the FA and their comrades at Birmingham City told FIFA that they would fight such a proposal – in the courts if necessary. FIFA backed off.
Whatever else football is, it is certainly not ruled by people who have any sense of fairness, decency or virtually anything else.
