UEFA's Appeal Committee Show No Common Sense

Why is it so hard to have a governing body with an ounce of common sense, UEFA just seem bereft of it every time it seems like they’ll do the right thing. Are your matches blighted by neo-nazi’s forming swastika shapes on the terrace? Here, have a fine of $3 and don’t do it again. Do your fans steal a visiting fans scooter, carry it into the ground, set it on fire and throw it on the pitch during a game? Never happened. English based player sent off for a foul he didn’t commit? The Red card stands!

Darren Fletcher’s red card, alongside Eric Abidals, was a travesty. The referee got it wrong, it was obviously a mistake so United must have been hoping that UEFA’s appeal’s panel would realise that the ludicrous and frankly absurd rule that you can’t appeal a red card unless it’s mistaken identity and it would see the opportunity for them to hold their hands up, say the referee got it wrong, and rescind it.

Of course they didn’t. Now I’m not buying into the conspiracy theories that are currently doing the rounds in the British press, though UEFA’s contempt for the Premiership is hard to ignore currently due Platini’s consistent anti-Premiership rhetoric, but honestly, they make you want to pull your hair out. Fletcher’s challenge was a wonderfully timed last ditch tackle that saved a goalscoring opportunity, or so he thought. Unfortunately referee Rosetti deemed it a foul and that’s the end of it.

To be blunt, it shows that the idiots in power at the top of UEFA have now entrenched so far into their bunkers that they can no longer see common sense. What is so wrong with doing the right thing? It’s the same for the Abidal sending off, an incorrect decision that all the world can see in the cold light of day but they will not budge on the matter. An incorrect decision, regardless of televisual evidence stands, cast in stone.  A chance for UEFA to finally offer those who criticise the bloated, out of touch and idiotic board an opportunity to say well done UEFA, a common sense victory for football.

Yet, they once again sail off into the sunset, the winds of ignorance speeding them onward to the next calamity. How can these decisions support the referee’s who have to make these decisions, no-one is infallible, no-one is beyond making a mistake. By digging themselves into such a position, they make themselves ripe for ridicule, with the next calamitous decision just around the corner. Like holding the Champions League final at a ground with a history of violence from both the fans and the police in a country racked with hooliganism at every match.

I’ve been to the Stadio Olympico twice, both times were eye opening experiences for me as a fan. Both times left me very nervous about my well being in and around the stadium and they were for a Serie A game. Would I go there as an opposing fan? Not on your life!Hopefully, the British police will be there in large numbers to keep an eye out for rogue groups of Roma fans with their speciality of sticking a pen knife in you as you walk past them. And again, and again and so it continues.

It’s so disappointing to have an official body that won’t do the right thing whenever they seem to given a perfect opportunity time and again. It’s a real shame that Fletcher and Abidal will both miss the biggest games of their careers so far due to stubbornness beyond all reason.