6th October 2003: The FA Video
Panel must be staffed by people who no very little about football
and what goes on in matches on a regular basis. To turn down the appeal
against AJ's sending off is, in my view, nothing short of scandalous.
Unless there is some footage that has not been shown in the public
domain that shows AJ doing something more that shrugging off the close
attentions of John Eustace, I fail to see how they cannot rescind
that red card. If that sort of action was given a red card every time
it occurred, most matched would be abandoned due to lack of players
after three or four corners.
It would also be interesting to know what action, if any, was taken
against the referee. Given that John Eustace's appeal was not even
referred to the Video Panel, they must surely have admonished the
referee for not giving a penalty to West Brom as his action was obviously
foul play, and obviously occurred in the penalty area while the ball
was in play. Strangely enough, I do not hold out much hope...
OK, it may be argued that these sendings off occurred because of some
FIFA directive or other clamping down on shirt pulling or whatever.
As always with any directive that comes from outside of the country,
be it EU or FIFA, we Brits seem to enforce it to the letter irrespective
of whether it improves the situation in the UK. In the case of football,
the referees, this season, have been given no room for exercising
common sense and the game, as a consequence, is being spoiled by a
plethora of petty red and yellow cards such as the Eustace/Johnson
incident. In Europe, of course, the referees are being allowed to
use their discretion and the games have been refereed much more sensibly.
I hear that Philip Don has been receiving some criticism from within
the game as being the reason for the referees' lack of discretion,
and with a bit of luck, he might be replaced shortly such that we
can get back to some semblance of normality.
From Albion's point of view, AJ will be a loss but not as severe as
it could've been as long as Gregan continues his apparent return to
form, but for AJ himself, it could prove more of a problem as he could
struggle to force his was back into the team. You need only look at
Volmer and Hughes for proof of that - a minor injury keeps you out
for one game, and your replacement plays well and keeps his place.
Such is the life of a footballer in a squad of good players.
It is a certain sign that this club is much stronger when you can
say that AJ's loss shouldn't be felt too deeply.
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