English football fans who watched the BBC’s programme about the Heysel Stadium tragedy will have felt both sympathy for those innocent fans who lost their lives that day, as well as relief that football in our country is now as safe as it’s ever been. In the main, watching football across Europe is a far safer pastime than it perhaps was in the eighties.
However, recent events have shown that while England (whose teams were banned for five years as a result of Heysel) has developed and largely eradicated the problems it once had, there are other nations in Europe who still have big issues to deal with, while we seem to have picked up a nasty habit from the continent ourselves.
Italy still have a significant number of football hooligans attending matches. Crowd clashes are still regarded as the norm at many clubs – and it seems that it is simply a matter for the Police to deal with, rather than the clubs or the footballing authorities. The results are scenes like the ones we’ve seen this season. Firstly, Anders Frisk was struck by an object at a Champions League match at Roma, while Markus Merk did his best to get the game restarted a fortnight ago after Inter Milan fans showered the pitch with flares and firecrackers after the referee controversially disallowed an Inter equaliser in the second half. Milan goalkeeper Dida was struck by one of the flares – and in many respects he was lucky it didn’t cause more damage than a slightly burnt and bruised shoulder.
Then we have the Spanish. Theirs is one of, if not THE richest football league in Europe, yet the punishments meted out by the Spanish FA have been laughable.
The Spanish FA need sorting out. Simple as that. After chucking bananas and making monkey noises at Espanyol’s Cameroonian goalkeeper Carlos Kameni, the dozy twonks at the Spanish FA have decided on what they consider to be an appropriate punishment.
The result? They've fined Atletico Madrid the princely sum of US$780. That's about £500 to you and me. It's the second time they've fined Atletico for the racist actions of their fans - and the fine for that offence was exactly the same, US$780. If UEFA are serious about kicking racism out of football, then they need to get tough with these spineless idiots who run Spanish football. They’re the same people who think that calling a black opposition player a “black s**t” is a barely punishable misdemeanour, let alone a sacking offence. Spanish national team manager Luis Aragones is a figurehead for Spain and Spanish football – and his actions should have cost him his job. Instead it barely cost him a week’s wages.
While the violence in Italy is a huge issue that would need serious consideration before approaching a solution, the racism issue in Spain is rather easier to deal with. So why are UEFA allowing the Spanish FA to insult black players the world over by ‘punishing’ racist acts with such paltry fines? It makes me sick to the back teeth – and gives Spanish football a bad reputation, when we should be marvelling at the skill of the players plying their trade in La Liga.
Another person who needs to wake up and smell the coffee after his rant this week is Crystal Palace manager Iain Dowie. I’ve a great deal of respect for Dowie, not just for the job he is doing at Selhurst Park, but for the dignity he has shown throughout his time as both a player and a manager. However, with Palace in the relegation zone and with games running out, it seems the pressure is beginning to get to him. His rant to the press this week after they dared to question Andy Johnson’s ability to stay upright in the penalty area was a step too far for me.
Dowie was adamant that Johnson was not a diver – and that to suggest so was a heinous attempt to sully the reputation of one of football’s most honest players. Well Mr. Dowie, I tend to go along with you on AJ’s integrity in general. His reactions after scoring against Birmingham showed both class and restraint and brought him deserved plaudits. He isn’t a demonstrative player at all – and his general conduct on the field is an example to young players across the country. However, to say that Johnson doesn’t go to ground easily would be a shade off the truth. In fact it would be plain wrong.
When I saw the interview with Dowie on Sky Sports News, they played a collection of Crystal Palace’s many penalty awards and in all of them there was contact between a defender and Johnson. However, on many occasions, that contact seemed to have a disproportionate effect on the striker, who has hit the deck with unerring regularity this season, earning Palace a host of penalty kicks along the way. For my money, the penalties were given on the basis of Johnson’s actions rather than the challenges by the defenders – and that can’t be right.
Is Johnson a cheat? I wouldn’t necessarily say so, as he’s taking full advantage of clumsy challenges by defenders - and in this day and age, where defenders and goalkeepers get the benefit of the doubt for virtually any incident near their own goal, strikers can’t afford to let an opportunity pass.
But is he a diver? By my definition, most definitely. In many of those situations, Johnson has gone down rather than try to stay on his feet – and therefore that has been a deliberate act of falling, which counts as diving in my book. So in some ways, I guess diving isn’t exactly cheating. If you’ve been fouled and you need to go to ground to get the decision, then that’s what you should do, but if you’re just chucking yourself to the floor under no challenge whatsoever in an attempt to win a penalty or get a player booked or sent off, that is cheating of the worst order – and players who do this should be strongly dealt with.
That, inevitably, brings us to the Portuguese diving champion himself, Cristiano Ronaldo, who should be brought to task by the FA for his actions in the FA Cup semi final at the weekend. To coin a phrase used by John Terry to (accurately) describe Michael Ballack, Ronaldo is a ‘serial diver’. When you watch Ronaldo play and see him denied space, there is a regular pattern that you can watch for in any of his matches. It’s ‘step-over, then fall over’, and referees seem to fall for it time and time again.
I understand there is a panel that sits to judge incidents that have gone unnoticed by the referee – and I strongly believe that the panel should have the ability to award yellow cards if a player has deliberately dived during a match. Clearly Sir Alex Ferguson is happy for his man to hit the deck under the slightest of challenges (and sometimes under no challenge at all), so it’s high time the FA clamp down on it.
Referees and linesmen can’t be expected to spot all the incidents where a player has dived, as they can’t always be at the right angle to see, so the pressure should be lifted from the officials to a degree by allowing bookings to be awarded at halftime and fulltime by a video official who has access to TV footage, plus the FA disciplinary panel in the 24 hours after the match.
To finish on a positive note, it’s great to hear that Stan Ternent may be receptive to a new contract offer from the club. The Gills have been transformed since his arrival with Ronnie Jepson – and if Paul Scally knows what’s good for the club, then he should move swiftly to tie the pair of them to a two-year contract at least. With Ronnie and Stan in charge – and some shrewd dealing in the transfer market in the summer, we could have a season without having to worry about looking over our shoulders. Stan’s exactly the sort of character we need at Gillingham – and his management style fits our club perfectly. He wants to finish the job of keeping us up first, but we must sign them up. We've been missing a manager to take us forward - and now we've found one - and it seems he may be keen to stay. Sign him up!