Ridiculous

So Eduardo gets a two-game ban for 'diving.'

May I just comment a while about how ridiculous this is.

First of all, it barely constituted a dive. I mean, it doesn't even look like he threw himself. He had an open goal. Why would he dive? Maybe he just tripped.

But, of course, it's Arsenal, so UEFA decide that they shouldn't even entertain this notion.

Ok, for argument's sake, let's just suppose that he did actually dive.

Then why, in all these years, why has nobody else been called up? Cronaldo, Drogba, Torres, Messi, should've been banned numerous times. And, ironically, in the second-leg quarter-final Champions League match two season ago, Ryan Babel did a spectacular dive to win Liverpool the game. Where was the ban then? The players that I've mentioned dived much more obviously, and usually in games of far more import than Eduardo diving in what was effectively a match already won. They also dive more frequently.

Why have they picked now, on such an unimportant game, on a not-very-clear-cut dive?

The only conclusion that I can come to is that Arsenal are easy targets. They don't have the same clout that Barca and Chelsea have. They're considered a "small club". The same with Man Utd, except even greater, as Cronaldo is such a big star that nobody dares touch him. Whatever he does is alright, because he scores goals. Eduardo is a nobody. Nobody cares if he gets banned.

The football club are upset, and rightly so. As stated, there has been no protocol followed, no reasons given, and no process followed for the ban.

And, rightly, Arsenal expect it to be applied to everybody.

It's not that fact that Eduardo is banned that has me riled. Arsenal has other strikers, and he's only banned for two Group Stage matches. It's the fact that UEFA choose this obscure and not very clear incident to make an example, the fact that they choose this player, and this club to tell the rest of the world that diving is not on. When they could have chosen one out of about 5 million instances when Ronaldo has dived, they choose to target Eduardo.

The only good thing that I can see coming out of this is that this banning of divers becomes universal and rigorously enforced - on everybody. But, knowing how corrupt and inept and inconsistent both FIFA and UEFA are, this probably won't happen.

Word of the Day: Injustice