The amusing part to me is the message board/comment traffic. You could argue that's always the amusing part as people rant back and forth, stray off topic, insult each other, and generally accomplish little more than proving several things. One, they are completely biased. Two, they don't know nearly as much about the topic as they think they do. Finally, schooling systems around the world have severe, severe issues when it comes to teaching grammar, sentence structure, and spelling to the budding sports fans in their care.
Now don't get me wrong. Coherent points and arguments are in there somewhere. You just need to search long and hard to find them.
The Ribery "situation" especially has made me laugh. There are many people that think his ban should be reduced to one game, enabling him to play in the final against the winner of the Inter Milan and Barcelona tie later today. Reading through the various comment sections there are a few themes that develop. I'll address them each, but ultimately I think they are all pretty poor cases.
"The fans want to see the best players play".
This one in particular makes me chuckle. People have seriously posted comments that he should not be banned because they want to see him play in the game. So, because he entertains fans that means he should not receive a punishment for breaking the rules? Does that mean Messi gets to punch guys on the pitch and get away with it because he is the current darling of international soccer?
Heck, even the NBA enforces the rules on star players leaving the bench (Suns vs. Spurs a few years back) in the middle of crucial play-off series. And they are the standard bearer for having one set of rules for stars and one for everyone else.
"The punishment does not fit the crime".
This case at least has a logical approach to it even if I don't think it holds water. Many are arguing that the foul resulting in the red card was not "serious foul play" and thus does not merit a three-game ban. The reasons given for this vary from "it was not intentional" to "Lisandro made a meal of it" to "it wasn't that bad of a foul". In order:
There is no rule that says "serious foul play" requires intent. A broken leg is a broken leg, regardless of intent. And Lisandro could easily have had his leg broken on the play.
There is no rule that if the fouled player rolls around like he's been shot to exaggerate the seriousness of a foul that the foul should be treated differently. So what if Lisandro "made a meal of it"? This does not change the fact that the foul was extremely dangerous.
To those that say "it wasn't that bad". Really? Really? If you, a friend, your child, or your teammate were on the receiving end of that tackle you would be asking for Ribery's head. That is a fact.
"The rules about cards are stupid and should be changed so that players do not miss finals of tournaments".
This is a statement that I agree with to an extent. There definitely needs to be some revamping of how major tournaments handle these situations. Obviously there has to be a line somewhere (fighting, serious foul play), but too many players miss out on games due to what seem like technicalities of the rules. In this case Ribery joins Roy Keane, Michael Ballack, and many others on the list of players to miss out on games that should be the pinnacle of a player's career.
However, it is a completely irrelevant argument in this situation. The rule stinks? Fine, change it for next year's tournament. You don't change the rules in the middle of a tournament, a league, a season, of anything. You just don't.
FIFA and UEFA (arguably) did it in World Cup Qualifying with the seeding fiasco and we all know it was a joke and completely unfair to change the rules at the end of the competition.
"Referees making poor decisions impact these things too much".
Another statement that you can validly argue. Many, many examples. Chelsea v Barcelona last year. South Korea's wins against Spain and Italy in 2002. France v Ireland last fall. The list goes on. Again though, you can't change it for this one instance. It has to be done globally and in advance of the competition.
All of that said though, please, please keep posting. It not only makes me laugh, it makes me feel better about myself!
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