“Uefa has charged Jose Mourinho and four of his Real Madrid players over allegations he ordered Sergio Ramos and Xabi Alonso to get themselves sent off in a Champions League match.
Uefa’s disciplinary committee will investigate Mourinho for alleged unsporting conduct as well as Alonso, Ramos, Iker Casillas and Jerzy Dudek. The Uefa Control and Disciplinary board will rule on the case on Tuesday.”
What nonsense! Granted, it a manipulation of the rules of the game but in a week where we’ve seen the extra officials miss stonewall penalties and after years of lobbying for goalline tech and other assistance to referees to eliminate errors from the game, not to mention the financial mess football finds itself in England, Spain, Scotland and elsewhere, surely UEFA (and to a similar extent, FIFA) should do more than just respond to media pressure when trying to ‘regulate’ the game?
When you have clubs fined a measly 10k, 20k, 30k for crowd violence or racist abuse but Adrian Mutu being summarily dismissed from Chelsea for a drug problem and then sued for millions of pounds, you have to wonder where the footballing authorities priorities lie.
A lot worse has happened in football in the last week than the deliberate red cards – some of it easily preventable – but again a high profile case with little to it catches UEFA’s attention.
Will they suspend them from the next Champions League tie? The one where they really don’t care to play anyway? Or will they suspend them from the second round game as well, so as to teach them a lesson? The response will be interesting, albeit completely irrelevant when it comes to improving football, which UEFA don’t seem intent on doing in any case.
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