Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger in all he does » Sir Alexenophobia Ferguson has opened his mouth
By Walter Broeckx
Sir Alexenophobia Ferguson has opened his mouth to tell us that the way the Bayern Munich players behaved in the game at Old Trafford was typical of Germans.
I’m not going to give too much time on reviewing the ref of that game but let me start by saying that Rafael would have walked if I was the ref when he got his first yellow card. You could argue that he was fouled and the ref should have given a free kick to United.
BUT when a player on my field thinks he can play judge like that, by kicking a player when the ball is not playable for him, than he gets a red card. There is no other option but to send him off. He just kicked a player when he was lying on the ground and the ball was yards out of reach for him.
So Sir Alexenophobia should have been a happy men with that decision. Then the second yellow card was for a pull on a player when the ball was not in his reach. Again this is a yellow card offence as is given in our instructions.
Fouling a player like that is a deliberate foul and an attempt to prevent a quick attack and a promising move. I know it is not a dangerous foul and I rather have a player pulling someone shirt than kicking him from behind but it is a cynical foul and cynical fouls are punished with a yellow card.
Now I’m going to get a little technical and this ruling should be the same, according to Mr. Blatter, for all countries. The question is: how do you give a card.
It depends on the situation. When as a ref you feel that there is a situation that could go out of hand you always pull the card first before anything else is done. Let us say a challenge that is so horrible (eg: Eduardo) you just have to run to the criminal and smash a red card under his nose (or against it if possible). Did Dean do it like that? Mmmm I doubt it.
But off course the Arsenal players did not attack Taylor after that incident as they were shell shocked by the injury. But if as a ref you fear trouble you just produce the card as fast as possible to calm things down.
When there is no trouble around you can first call the offender over and produce the yellow first or give him a lecture and then show the card. That’s up to the ref to decide on the field at the time. So the Italian ref took his time to get his card out. And in the circumstances he was entitled to think about.
Sir Alexenophobia claimed after the game that the behaviour of the players of Bayern Munich was “typical German”. Yes the players protested because they know it is a yellow card offence. And I must say that I don’t like to see that kind of behaviour of players. On my field or on any field. We all can remember the last world cup when there was a rule that when a player asks for a yellow card, he himself should get also a booking. Please bring that rule back, I still put in practice.
But now on the “typical German“ issue. Let us go back some 2 or 3 seasons in time. During that season the FA felt the need that something had to be done about players harassing refs and trying to influence the refs and waving their arms around in the well known gesture of producing a card.
And this was getting so out of hand at the time that the FA started its own campaign by telling the clubs to show respect for the ref and to leave him alone when he made his decisions.
Now it could well be that in that season, without me noticing it, the EPL was invaded by the Germans and all the players suddenly came from Germany. But of course there was no invasion of Germans, so it should have been English players that had behaved badly to cause the FA to start this campaign.
In fact when the FA made videos to let everybody know what was no longer acceptable it showed a lot of images of players from United and Chelsea that were surrounding the ref to influence him. Maybe Chelsea had Ballack in the team but I don’t think I can remember a German player playing for United the last couple of years. Please let me know if I’m wrong on this.
So it should be that the players in those days from United and Chelsea had a lot of English blood running through their veins. So Sir Alexenophobia, don’t make yourself ridiculous with comments like “typical German” when you have done it as much, or even more, as those Germans. If you don’t like the Germans, which could be the case, just say it loud. And if you don’t like Italians, just say it loud and clear. But don’t moan about something your own team has done for years AND STILL DOES.
You only are making a fool of yourself because there are people out there who have a memory you know. You have been a good manager in terms of success, I think everybody should admit this, but as a human being you are a very sour loser. Yet nobody’s seemed to notice as all of them were too busy calling Wenger a sour loser. But now it looks like you have opened some people’s eyes a bit, even some pundits eyes.
So if my little article can help some other people to open their eyes even more a bit, it was worth the trouble. Sir Alexenophobia Ferguson, one of the biggest hypocrites in the game. And now please condemn your own players whenever they go to a ref from now on. Will you? Not even I expect you would. Who else would?
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