Gentlemen footballers

[Aggers]

There aren't many, are there?

When on holiday I was shocked to see the TV News pictures of a footballer biting the arm of one of the apposing team.

Now if that happened to me in the street and a policeman saw the incidence, I would expect him to step in and arrest the
biter for assault.

Now, there must have been dozens of policemen at that football ground, (there always are), so why didn't one of them march onto the pitch and arrest that man ?

What's so special about blinking football ?

[Rodo]

Puzzled about your heading Agenoria. Gentlemen footballers! Can gentlemen be footballers, and can footballers be gentlemen?

[Suff]

The old saying is:

Rugby Football is a game for thugs played by Gentlemen.
Soccer is a game for Gentlemen played by thugs.

Every day I see the truth of that. OK Rugby is descending too, but nothing like as fast.

[KateLMead]

The old saying is:

Rugby Football is a game for thugs played by Gentlemen.
Soccer is a game for Gentlemen played by thugs.

Every day I see the truth of that. OK Rugby is descending too, but nothing like as fast.

Never was a truer word spoken.. I refuse to watch football, the mass hysteria of the public, the self glorifying exhibitions of the players if they get a goal.. There is nothing attractive about the players or the onlookers. "Weakness of intellect the old crow replied, so big a worm for so small an inside"!!

[Aggers]

[Rodo]

Actually I quite enjoy watching football sometimes. I used to go on all the local matches when I was a teenager. In those days watching players like Tom Finney was really good. After he had played, he would go back to being a plumber again. It was a real sport in those days.

The main problem these days is money of course. There are too many foreign (and expensive) players being brought into teams. They ought to do the cricket thing and say you can only play for a team if you were born in the County.

The other problem of course is the growing disregard for propriety and for respect in the general public. This isn't just football, it is widespread throughout the whole community.

The game itself is, or was, good. The changes as the years have gone on have not been for the better.

Incidentally, it's good news about Hawkeye. Roll it out to as many clubs as possible please.

[Workingman]

While the police and FA are inconsistent in their dealing with misbehaviour then players will take advantage.

Had Suarez been seen by a TV watching lip reader saying something about Ivanovic being a Serbian................... All Hell would have broken loose: Long and drawn out investigations; court cases; MP's questions.

A bite? Here, have a tetanus and a rabies jab and get on with life.

As for Hawkeye, it is an expensive mess usable only in the PL and probably for only a couple of 'real' instances over a whole season, though I fully expect 'da meeja' to analyse to the nth a million and one near misses.

[TheOstrich]

I've had a couple of instances recently where goal-line technology would have been useful, but you'd never see it in non-league football.

03/04/13 - Polesworth v Rugeley Rangers (Midland Combination 2) was nicely poised at 1-1 on 72m when a long-range blockbuster from Polesworth's Fallon beat the keeper, cannoned off the underside of the bar, and came down and out. The linesman flagged the goal. I wouldn't have liked to call it one way or the other from where I was standing. It wasn't disputed by the players other than half-heartedly, and it rather turned the game, Polesworth eventually winning 4-1.

16/04/13 - The second instance was at Solihull Moors v Harrogate Town (BSB Conference North), the game goalless on 58m, when a Solihull attempt - from where I was sitting in the stand - appeared to hit the back of the net and come back out. And most folk around me thought the same - we were all saying "Wasn't that in??" None of the officials reacted, however, and the players didn't protest. The Moors website match report gives it as "miraculously cleared off the line".

I'm pretty sure the officials get it right the vast majority of times, y'know .....

[cromwell]

While the police and FA are inconsistent in their dealing with misbehaviour then players will take advantage.

Had Suarez been seen by a TV watching lip reader saying something about Ivanovic being a Serbian................... All Hell would have broken loose: Long and drawn out investigations; court cases; MP's questions.

Oh yes.
Suarez was done for racially abusing Patrice Evra. After that I believe that the FA marked his card, and want him out of the British game asap.
10 matches for what he did? Sorry, I don't agree with that and I'm far from being a fan of Liverpool FC. Ivanovic didn't need attention from the trainer, he didn't make any complaint even. 10 matches?
McManaman of Wigan did a horrendous over the ball tackle this season, catching his opponent on the inside of the knee. Punishment? Nothing. Ryan Shawcross of Stoke has broken two player's legs - Francis Jeffers and Aaron Ramsey, and he's still playing and unremarked on.
The FA's disciplinary procedures are a farce and a joke, and that to me is a bigger story than Suarez.