Arsene Wenger is not a happy bunny. Upon hearing the news about UEFA’s decision to charge Eduardo for diving in the recent Champions League qualifier victory over Celtic, the Arsenal boss said that it was a ‘complete disgrace and unacceptable’.
To be honest, you can’t blame Wenger for having these views. It’s not as if Eduardo is the first player to make more out of a challenge than he should have done is it? Imagine how many times Cristiano Ronaldo should have been charged if this was the norm!
Continuing to speak about his disapproval with the decision, Wenger said that this has ‘singled out a player to be a cheat’, something which is ‘not acceptable’. He went on to say that it is the first time in football where the judgment of the referee has been deemed as accepted by the football bodies.
This is very true. When do you ever hear of this? When has a player ever been charged for diving? The official line is that Eduardo has been punished for ‘going down with intent’, but how can this be proved?
Fair enough, it probably wasn’t a penalty, but can it be proved that Eduardo dived with the intention of cheating? There have been far more blatant dives in football over the last few years, so why has this one been singled out? It makes no sense to me and seems a very strange decision.
One of Wenger’s final points (he talked about it for a while!) was that the case has been ‘ruled emotionally’ by the Scottish FA and the Scottish people who work for UEFA. Overall, the Frenchman is bewildered by the fact that ‘the existing rules of football have been changed for just one case’.
The next development in this story is that Eduardo could be banned for two European games when the disciplinary body meets next week. This means that there is every chance he could miss the games against Standard Liege and Olympiacos.
Does he deserve this though? What are your thoughts?
As always, let me know.