At last, a club willing to stand up and fight against the insane, bent and discredited UEFA.
Arsenal’s statement over the Eduardo affair was everything we could have wished for – a complete catalogue of everything that is wrong with the warped European governing body, including its arrogant belief that it can get away with anything, just because it is a monopoly.
Let’s consider what will happen now.
The UEFA “report” on the show-trial will be handed over to Arsenal tomorrow. Arsenal could just accept it (which seems impossible given the strength of their language on the web site today) or appeal.
This is where it gets tricky. If UEFA change their minds and “let Eduardo off with a warning” what will Arsenal do? The wind will be removed from the sails, and there will be less focus on their demand that every other offence not punished by the referee is dealt with subsequently.
So, in order to get this matter resolved, we need UEFA to continue with their current childish view of the world (along with their belief in their own invulnerability) and confirm the verdict.
That would then put the ball back in Arsenal’s court, and Arsenal, (along I hope with everyone else) will start pelting UEFA with complaints about every single decision that is taken. The game will disintegrate – and with it UEFA – and from the ashes a new organisation will arise.
Well, ok, not quite, but it could be the start of reform.
Many major clubs (obviously not Celtic, and others in Scotland who used the SFA to start this affair, but certainly the major players in Europe) are utterly fed up with UEFA’s nonsense, and would like to move away from UEFA.
This could be the step in that direction – the catalyst that drives the process of rationalisation of European football forwards.
The manager of Croatia, who always comes across to me as one of the good guys (but I could be terribly wrong there) has thrown his hat in the ring alongside Arsenal in attacking UEFA, which is a start.
Meanwhile the reserves played last night…
The reserves kept up their 100% record by beating Birmingham. It is most interesting to look at the team at this point, not least because what you see here is going to be the core of the team for the 3rd round of the Very Little Cup.
This is how it is looking…
Mannone
Gilbert, Hoyte-the-younger, Traore, Bartle
Eastmond, Coquelin, Merida
Randall, Sunu, Watt
We have of course already lost a few who are out on loan (Lansbury, JET, Simpson) and you can add Gibbs, Wilshere and maybe Djourou, if they are felt in need of a game. And those who didn’t play last night like, Murphy, Barazite, Frimpong…. Quite a squad.
Last of all spare a thought for... Senderos. No one wanted to buy him, he can’t get a seat on the bench, so where now? He was never anyone’s star turn, but he was a good reserve body to have for when one of the regulars got injured. We don’t have that many central defenders, so maybe, just maybe, he might find a place there as a reserve in that position, until Song finally moves into the back four.
(c) Tony Attwood
PS to Team Talk, when Kameron posts today the chances are it will be a cut and paste job from this site. I appreciate that you think it is a jolly good idea to allow someone to do this, but why not do the honourable thing and come on here and explain to us all why you think this is a good way to run a web site?
Till now I thought UEFA was atleast right in setting a benchmark by punishing us. But just now came across this article which has said that referee was against changing his decision but was ignored.
Now this is heights coz.
1) First you pick 2 players in 3 years to punish. No they are not horrific fouls committed which broke someone’s legs. Instead both are simple dives.
2) You punish them more than what he was to get otherwise (yellow card).
3) You are ready to break all the rules coz referee is not ready to toe your line.
“On the night, the referee awarded a penalty and he stood by his decision when questioned later about the incident. Yet UEFA’s disciplinary inspector ignored him and, instead, spoke only to the referee’s observer before issuing the charge last Friday.
It actually goes against a FIFA ruling which states the referee’s word is final if the man in black says he has already dealt with the incident – something we have seen so many times when the FA have declared themselves powerless to act because the match officials had seen it for themselves.”
I removed the link coz it puts my comment under moderation.
I said yesterday that Arsenal are sometimes too gentlemanly. Does anyone remember some years back when Arsene Wenger vowed to go to court if necessary to fight a similar witch hunt against him by the FA? The Arsenal authorities persuaded him to simmer down. I bet they will not let him fight this one to the end.
I think he should fight this particular witch hunt and the Board, down to the porter should support him. UEFA’s duplicity must not be allowed to taint our club. So many decisions over the years have gone against us that we have accepted and moved on. Not this one. If we whimp out this time, our club will become the laughing stock of all. Croatia have already decried the decision. The referee does not support UEFA in its action. Why should we not fight it to the bitter end?
What that cheat, Mike Dean, did to us against ManUre on Saturday will be child’s play if we do not stand up for ourselves.
Allow me to borrow in a way form a pdf document I’vee been reading on social networks titled “Enabling The Social Company”. I’m not so sure if it’s because Uefa have so infuriated me right now or they are an obvious relation, but I kept uh-ah moments pointing at them.
Basically, at some point they talk of how it was with corporations pre-internet where companies could mistreat their customers without customers having recourse. This is the same way Uefa is looking at itself, as a kind of demi-god and like the ancient companies, Uefa (and Fifa) are certainly heading for the dustbins of history. Unfortunately for us, Fifa, as with pre internet times, has federations in developing countries in a vice grip due to lack of funding (which happens to be their responsibility) and corruption.
They also have recommendations on dealing with community members the first and most important being: “Write the rules and stick to them”. The rules were evidently bent to make an example of Eduardo and will be bent further still in an attempt to exonerate Uefa of any wrongdoing.
LRV I think things have changed a bit since then. Gazidis and his team of executives don’t look like the kind to back down in light of injustices.
I think AW forgot where he put his cheque book is.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPS THIS SEEMS TO BE COPIED FROM A COMMENT BY BEPA ON TEAM TALK, SO HAS TO BE DELETED.
Whilst I have always backed Wenger, I was hoping we would sign at least one player for either central defense or midfield.
I HAVE CUT THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE AS IT APPEARS TO BE A COPY FROM MASSYZ ON TEAM TALK. OF COURSE BOTH WRITERS COULD BE THE SAME PERSON, BUT IF THEY ARE, THEY SHOULD REALLY USE THE SAME NAME ON BOTH, OTHERWISE I WILL ASSUME THIS IS PLAGIARISM
TONY
tony, i agree that it’s better for arsenal if uefa keeps up its hissy fit. give this thing a week or two, and the %$%#-heads calling for someone to re-break Eduardo’s leg will lose interest, and cooler, more rational heads will prevail.
not sure if it’s just me, but it seems like there’s a change in the coverage of the eduardo affair, like it’s almost turning into one more battle in the protracted war between UEFA vs. England.
rajivinindia: Do you not care about The Arsenal at all? Our club is under “attack”; we are being witch-hunted and all you can think about is ‘cheque-book’ and whether or not Arsene buys some cunt who is probably not going to add any more to our club than the quality we obviously already have? How many of your so called top four bought extra-ordinarily or arbitrarily? Tell me? Please, I do not want to vent my anger on a co-Arsenal fan, but please don’t tempt me.
Mikel I am inclined to agree with your points. We are left to hope we do not have a repeat of the misfortune of the last two years with injuries. I think the point about Denilson/Song is especially pertinent – there is no obvious cover at present. Come to that I am not sure how well the 4-3-3 system works if either of them are injured.
Come to that if Cameroon qualify for the African Nations (anyone know how that is going??) then we will lose Song for quite a few weeks anyway. Last I heard Cameroon were potentially going to be knocked out which would be great news.
We must hope that Coquelin continues his promising progress, dazzles in the Carling Cup and becomes a candidate as cover by the end of the season.
Players like Ramsey, Diaby can step in but you have to ask if that will be enough defensively against the big teams.
Still overall we are in a stronger position than last year and we must as fans do our best to get behind the team. One of the reasons Man Utd get the decisions at home is their fans and though our away support has been good our home support is all a bit prawn sandwiches and home before last whistle.
I wish we had a cauldron of noise but being the type of gentrified club and team we are I cant see that ever happening!
COME ON YOU REDS.
abhishek, you make a great point.
the referee, upon seeing video review, AGREED with his original decision.
and UEFA still served the ban.
hmm…wonder why this point has been conveniently overlooked amid the thousands of articles published so far. if i were wenger, this would be the point i would continually drive home in every interview from now on. the man paid by UEFA who had been and still is in the best position to judge, said eduardo did not dive.
as a side note, i’d pay good money to see arsene read a list of actions made each week, in every european match, “with deliberate intent to deceive.” if it were anything like his post-man u interview, it would be hilarious. he could, perhaps, with the help of some dedicated fans, even make a weekly highlight show out of it.
Jonny Neale: I wish Arsenal fans can take on board your point about home support. Man U are much vulnerable this season (as are Liverpool) but do you notice it at old tra-teapot? Oh no. The sad bit is some Arsenal fans are damn too good at handing initiative to the opposition by bashing the manager and certain players in particular and the whole team in general than creating a “cauldron of noise” that will intimidate the opposition as well as the officials who may be inclined to support them.
Like I said if the Uefa holds on to the ban I think the box of pandora is open and there will be protest all over Europe from day 1 in the CL en EL. I hope this hits back on uefa.
About the reserves: Yesterday I watched it on my laptop but I couldn’t follow it like a first team game. MY eldest sun came along with his girlfriend so I had to give them some attention to. 😉
But the pieces from the game I saw was incredible. Those kids, yes they are only kids, played in a way as good as the first team do on occasion. Some players catched my eye:
I noticed some incredible passing and neet footwork from Merida. He is really a great player in the making. Come on Arsene let him play in the CC and if he delivers it there, give him a chance in first team.
Cocquelin : we dont need to buy a holding midfielder. Song will do until Cocquelin is completed by AW. He looks like a real Flamini for me. Very energetic, hard tackling… he’s a beast. 😉 Same as for Merida.
Gilles Sunu : If you see him running at times it just is as if TH14 has been cloned. Het got the seem quick running feet, can make big passes, fast as lightning, can score good goals already… he just looks like the new TH to me.
Sanchez Watt: I saw him in the youth cup final and yesterday once again great player in the making. If you add JE Thomas to that team, some Wilshere and some players from the first team that are not playing for the moment we seem to have once again a great and youthfull CC squad.
Senderos: I really hope he can prove us wrong at some stage. He made some important mistakes at important times but I really think he is a player who every time he is on the pitch he tries to do his best. Maybe just that little bit short for the highest top but I’ve seen him play great games for us like he did when we went to AC Milan and won 0-2. He then was our best defender and returned any ball they launched at our defense. So he can do it but misses that whole game sharpness, but just a fraction.
I think banning Eduardo for 2 game was a good thing. I’m sick and tired of players conning the ref for penalty’s and trying to get players sent off. it also doesnt do us any good either as we saw at the game in old Trafford. Where clearly Arshavin should’ve had a penalty, but the Ref had doubt in his mind because of our previous game. Also, if Eduardo had been cautioned by the ref for diving and thier was no penalty, thier wouldn’t have been a ban. as you cant give the player a second punishment if he has been carded already.
UEFA however have done this completely wrong. Just coming out and charging Ed is a disgrace. If they were to going to come down hard on diver’s they should’ve announced this at the start of the compition.
Do i think this a Witch hunt? Do i Bol………
Just finished my contribution and clicked to arsenal.com and what do I read: “Sunu – The advice Henry gave me”.
Well what it was I think it was good advice.
Hi Tony, I agree with on both counts. We must object strongly to this decision, but hope that it is not reversed. Via “A Cultured Left Foot” I saw a video clip on Vital Bolton where Torres took a dive on Saturday. I think it great if the powers that be do manage to stamp out diving.
Throughout last season, I was a great supporter of Eboue. He had seemed to get rid of his high tackles which got him a yellow against ManU and a red against Spurs. He also seemed to have got over his exaggerated performances after he was fouled. However, his dive on Saturday was dreadful. Is it conceivable that Arsenal would punish it? Would we want that, or would that raise some of the same questions that we posed to UEFA?
I have loved the CC for years. The first semi against Spurs was fantastic. Last year was a real disappointment when we went out to Burnley.
Two of my best moments of recent years were Theo’s goals in the CC final and the CL at Anfield – well I suppose the second was Ade’s goal. I can’t wait for Theo to get back.
I dont think this is going to be our wost season ever. Yes I wanted AW to sign some, and Yes im annoyed that we didnt. But we are playin some lovely stuff at the moment and were unlucky to lose to United. We have Walcott, Nasri, Rosicky and Fabregas to come back from injury. I understand people fustrations about the ACN and with Song and Eboue going, however there is always Januwary and im sure even AW will at least bring a CM on a 6 month loan deal! Im upset we didnt sign anyone except Vermaelen, but so far this season our team have shown we dont need strengthening. So lets get behind the lads. We have a good crop of youngsters for the CC. The FA Cup isnt beyond us and I feel we wil go strong in the EPL this season. We hav a very easy UCL group and the knockout stages are after January.
LRV – Take spurs – Niko in the last min dea; Chelsea – no need to strengthen – we are not so strong in the middle of the park when we have injuries – i am really hoping we beat the citeh
rajivinindia: We already have several midfielders injured and despite that we are still fine. We will be fine. Niko? Would you be happy if Arsene had bought him? It seem to me we have far better than him already.
Am I the only one or does any one else think that if Eduardo had been a Man U player, this would not have happened?
Isn’t this partly what they want?
…..to distract us from the goal at hand.
UEFA is a political organization and they’re winning by having us go toe to toe with them.
We should gracefully accept the ban, but make sure that every major club is periodically reminded of the precedent they’ve set.
UEFA’s shot themselves in the foot and I can’t help but feel we’re nursing ’em back to health by leaning toward our current course of action.
You can sometimes fight a better fight without necessarily being in the heat of the battle.
You are not the only one, every gooner knows that.
If Eduardo was a ManU player the media would have
1) Accused Boruc of attempting to maim the poor fellow again.
2) Justified the dive as an act of self protection.
I think that no one would have taken SFA’s charge seriously in the first place.
Lovely article yet again Tony,
Do you remember Senderos and Clichy both signed on the same day.Senderos who was being touted as a future captain.He really appears to be out in the wilderness now.He was emotionally shattered in the Cl game against Liverpool and twice by Drogba, but I still feel he could be a good man to have on the bench for certain games.I wish him well.
@ Tony
Excellent post. Thanks again.
***
@ Jonny Neale
Regarding Song’s presumed absence at the ACN, I am guessing:
Plan A: Defensive minded backup for Song – Djourou, Senderos. Both have played as CDM. I heartily agree with Walter (fantastic post the other day, by the way!) that Coquelin could cut it now and again in the right game to give Song a rest.
Plan B: Formational/tactical change.
I too was a bit nervous about our numbers in CDM before the season started, so I understand why you say AW should buy for “cover”, but what you are really saying is he should buy players who are guaranteed not to get injured. Also he has to strike a balance between what he can afford, how much playing time he can give them, what he has coming through, etc. That said, had a gem of a player come up at a bargain price, I bet Wenger would have been in there like a shot!
I dont know where I read it but in an article it said that Arsenal was thinking about reducing the debt from the stadium to zero within a few years ?
Anyone heard this or read this ?
So maybe the board is holding the money received in to cut the debt faster and that would be great news for the future.
Once we have no debt for the Emirates anymore we could spend an extra 25 miljon pound eacht year on new player(s).
But I dont know if it is real or just a thought of someone or hope ?
Some Arsenal supporters really get on my nerves. UEFA, with the support of the English Press and certain Scottish big-wigs, engage in a witch-hunt against Eduardo and the club, neglect the findings of their own referee who reaffirms his penalty call, set up a kangaroo court with no due process which in less than an hour dispense summary judgement and suspends Eduardo for two games, yet these fans come on this website and bleat about new signings. On Saturday, we see the one of the fall-outs from this injustice; s Mike Dean is sufficiently empowered to continue his brand of dishonest refereeing and these fans babble on about splashing-the-cash. What other act of victimization are these fans willing to tolerate, before getting behind the club and exposing the cheats.
-rlg
UEFA is now morally and ethically bankrupt, and in my opinion will end up before a commission of the EU, sometime sooner rather than later.
It will need to explain why a pre-existing statute had never before been triggered, even when there have been many, many incidents where it could have been.
They will also need to explain how they can consistently enforce the statute, and provide a detailed process for doing that.
Finally (maybe) they will need to explain why they are able to override a referees decision after the fact, when the referee has seen and dealt with it in the flow of the game.
I don’t believe that UEFA will have a credible response to any of these questions. Oh wait a minute, it was an English team, now let me think….dominant PL, English not French or Spanish, and to cap it off it was Wenger’s team. Now this is credible reasoning, but unfortunately ethically and morally out of line!
I personally hope that UEFA is ripped apart as a result of this.
walter,
I read somewhere, i think it was in the Times, that Platini is proposing that every club has to be debt free in the next two or three years if they wish to be included in the Champions league.There was a discussion about this on the BBC Radio 5 last night, and I am not sure of the exact wording of the proposal, or if it was aimed at all clubs.
If so that would make an interesting scenario for Real Madrid and say Manchester City, if they don’t achieve top four status, as well as the usual suspects.
Does anybody know anymore about this ? A.S.
Hi Tony
In case you didnt notice your article about the disgusting chants aimed at ‘The Lord Wenger’ have finally made the national papers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2009/sep/03/arsene-wenger-chant-arsenal
I know it got mentioned by a couple of other blogs but I think you were the first to do a major piece on it
First again!!
Thanks for the thoughtful article on here.
Hope you got some credit from the gAurdian (sic)
Further to my last post, I believe the teams competing in the champions league will earn anything between 30 million to 80 million,if they win it.Would all these proceeds go to paying off the debt, and the transfer budget would have to balance to zero on all sales and purchases of players,and in addition the revenue from merchandise would have to be astronomical to reduce this debt on an annual basis.
re comment at 8:18 cica disgusting chants hit the mainstream media(currently awaiting moderation) apparently arseblogger, gunnerblog etc have all mentioned and so I am sorry Tony maybe you were not the first – should have done my homework before commenting!
However thanks again for your ever interesting articles
Arsenal are not known for diving. Arsenal is known for good, fair, and attractiv football. Thats why their charging Eduardo. And how often does this happend in Arsenal: Never. If it have happend with another team, players, they would do nothing. We will still see a future of diving. There are some really good divers out there. And they use it week in, and week out. ( Like Ronaldo, a really fake player. And players like that you have to kick out of football, because thats his game.) UEFA is nonsense.