So UEFA have thrown the book at Eduardo. To be precise, they have thrown Article 10, section 1, point c of the UEFA Disciplinary Guide at him. He has been given:
“suspension for two competition matches or for a specified period for acting with the obvious intent to cause any match official to make an incorrect decision or supporting his error of judgement and thereby causing him to make an incorrect decision.”
Introduced in 2006 the rule has only ever used in incidents involving the Scottish FA (twice – this is the second time). One is put strongly in mind of the ancient Scottish folksong, still sung throughout the land today: “SFA: Wank wank wank, SFA: Wank wank wank!”
There are several wonderful things about this most vague of rules.
As Arsene has pointed out it relies on the well-established principle of mens rea, something it is exceptionally tricky to establish simply by scrutinising the facial expression of the accused as they tumble floorwards, though you can certainly have a great argument in a pub about it. Did the culprit writhe or simply collapse, for example?
The other great thing about it is that there isn’t any kind of time-based cut-off. The law came into force in 2006, so every time a player has attempted to deceive the referee and has gone unpunished since 2006 could now be met with a two match ban. These punishments are retrospective, and anything since the law was passed is fair game.
Needless to say, this could pose quite a problem to serial cheats.
Take Ronaldo. Since 2006, Cristiano Ronaldo has appeared in 37 Champions League matches, 14 Euro 2008 qualifiers and 4 Euro 2008 games. That’s 55 appearances under Uefa jurisdiction, without even including friendlies. And it’s all on tape for Uefa’s disciplinary panel to have a good look at just as soon as they’ve finished harassing Eduardo.
Being (very) charitable I would say that having watched Ronaldo regularly he probably successfully deceives the referee – mostly through diving – at least once every two games he plays. I’m not joking – the regularity of his diving may well be unprecedented in world football. They’re not all high-profile incidents – he has won countless long-forgotten free-kicks in midfield by intentionally tripping himself up and hitting the deck. Mostly, he goes unpunished, though his collection of dive-earned yellow cards wouldn’t play in his favour. And it doesn’t matter if these dives won penalties or not.
As for establishing mens rea, the prosecution should be able to mount a pretty serviceable character assassination based on footage of the young man winking at his bench after cunningly getting his club-mate sent off in 2004.
At that rate, Uefa would have at least 27 incidents involving Ronaldo to look into, with the possibility of 2 game bans for each of them.
Hello 54 match ban! Goodbye mountains of TV dollars!
It can’t be one rule for Eduardo and another for everyone else. If Uefa are serious, then they’d better get busy with the video archive of Drogba, Gerrard, Rooney and Torres over the last 3 years.
They say they are on a mission to stamp diving out of the game altogether. Go on then.
Tags: Cristiano Ronaldo, didier drogba, fernando torres, steven gerrard, UEFA, wayne rooney
September 2nd, 2009 at 1:14 pm
never gonna happen tho is it? lookin back at old footage, watchin ronaldo even at the weekend i saw 3 or 4 terrible dives, more so on the edge of the box to get the freekick (he put 2 of these out of the stadium! haha)
i hate diving and wanted to leave after eddies blatent one, van persie is starting it now and its just an easy way out. anyone who isnt up to it will go down nowadays, i love him but even henry is doin it now 2 to 3 times a game…
September 2nd, 2009 at 1:54 pm
good article. the problem is that uefa won’t punish these players off their own backs. so i don’t know why arsenal doin’t make a formal complaint with close reference to lots of cases and try to have those other players banned,m even if it was nothing to do with us. as you said it’s one rule for them and another for us, so we can only try and highlight that best by making formal complaints all the time. if we do that then by their own rules they HAVE to act. if they don’t then it proves just how corrupt football is (if we didn’t already know lol)
September 2nd, 2009 at 1:55 pm
God Bless SAINT Eduardo!!!!
September 2nd, 2009 at 2:00 pm
Can we please stop crying and point our fingers against other teams?
Eduardo dived. Fact.
He was punished. Rightly so.
If others were not, that’s not our problem, hopefully in the future they will be as well.
September 2nd, 2009 at 2:25 pm
Life’s unfair, so i learnt. But i pray thus, shall we continue to be on the rougher side of this imbalanced trajectory because we wear the Arsenal shirt? Only God’ll judge.
September 2nd, 2009 at 2:42 pm
Eduardo was not slammed two match suspension because of the diving incident, He was banned because of his manager -Arsene Wenger. It’s a clear case of Michel Platini taking a pound of Arsene Wenger’s flesh, QED.
September 2nd, 2009 at 2:54 pm
UEFA how many standards are you up to???? you apply YOUR laws to the UNDERDOGS ONLY?
SHAME ON YOU WHY CAN’T YOU APPLY THAT TO RONALDO? because he is the most precious player in the world??? and Eduardo worth a penny only?
We supporters can too understand the existing LAws of football and WE as well can see YOU BEING SO UNFAIR!
September 2nd, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Nice article, I believe UEFA wanted to start with someone, let the start, fine. All i know is that they must continue it in every case that involve diving. Even if the ref didnt see it, the tape will be replayed and figured out as diving. Nice for football. UEFA are shortsighted people.
September 2nd, 2009 at 2:59 pm
I totally agree with wil osa…platini obvious jealous with wenger..
September 2nd, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Doesn’t that mean if you appeal for a throw-in, corner ot goal kick when you know it has not come off an opponent you would be gulity of this rule ? Putting an hand up and appealing is a direct act and if you know it is not your ball then it is awillful act to decieve the official.
Looks like it’s going to be a busy time for UEFA …
September 2nd, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Apologies for the typos there …
September 2nd, 2009 at 3:01 pm
I AM CALLING ALL ARSENAL SUPPORTERS TO UNITE AND SUPPORT MORALLY EDUARDO! HE NEEDS OUR PRAYERS TO OVERCOME THIS EMOTIONAL TURMOIL HE IS BESET NOW.
LET US NOT ALLOW THIS SITUATION BRING US TO DISUNITY, THIS IS NOW THE TIME ARSENAL PLAYERS,ESPECIALLY EDAURDO NEEDS US!
September 2nd, 2009 at 3:03 pm
Pls what about diving to excape an injury, two match ban? expect plenty of chronic injury, May God help injury prone Arsenal
September 2nd, 2009 at 3:25 pm
Gooner50 Says: “Eduardo dived. Fact. He was punished. Rightly so.”
Absolutely. But we’re not ‘crying’ about it; what AW (and we) want to know is that if UEFA have had this legislation in place since 2006, which they have, why have they only used it twice, both at the behest of the Scottish FA. Smells a bit funny, no? Have there been no other dives worth investigating in the last 3 years? They have opened a big ole can of worms here.
September 2nd, 2009 at 3:31 pm
But then again…what about our own Eboue? Or vP? Or Sagna? Or Fabregas? Or Adebayor? Thy have all dived more than just once in the last coupple of CL seasons. Eduardo dived, noone can say no to that, and I hate to see anyone do that in an Arsenal shirt. I think he is correctly banned, but the main problem here, is that this rule has never been used in similar incidents, since it was introduced.
The thing that UEFA should have done, is to make up a new rule that made clear statement. Then they could have used this on every occasion from no on. Beacuse there was, as far as I know, not delivered any formal complaint on Eduardo. And therefore in the future the rule should be: UEFA must look into every European game in order to ban any player with 2 matches, when the player clearly are deceiving the referee.
– Is this a rule that in anyway are possible to obtain?
I don’t think so, what about all the other activties going on, that is not according to the rules fo the game? Shouldnt they ban players for executing such activities to?
If a defender pulls the shirt of his opposition, and the referee don’t see it, isnt that deception? Should the defender be banned? Or if the ball touches the defender before it goes over the throwin line, and the ref doesnt see it, isnt that deception, when he raises his arm to get the throw in? The defender surely knows he touched the ball, and that the opposition rightly should have the throw.
The main problem of the UEFA ban clearly has, as Mr. Wenger put it; opened a door that they have no knowing of where will lead.
I for once hope Eduardo never dives again, and that noone dives again, and that there will be no cheating ever in fotball again…and it shouldnt be…because UEFa will look into every game, or will they not?
Norwegain gunner fan
September 2nd, 2009 at 3:41 pm
Support for Eduardo ??? Everyone should wear witches hats to the first Champions League game, it’ll look great on TV … lol
September 2nd, 2009 at 3:41 pm
Ege says “UEFA must look into every European game in order to ban any player with 2 matches, when the player clearly are deceiving the referee”
yes I can call that a nice idea but do you know that this same UEFA opposed the use of video evidence, what evidence do they now use to get Eduardo? Another question is that even if a conner kick is approved by a centre ref instead of a goal kick, the players should be banned because he refuses to tell the truth a that time. Nonsense.
Are we now banning player who dive to avoid injury? Pls UEFA, let this rule be sooo clearrrrrrrrr
September 2nd, 2009 at 3:56 pm
To “harosho” – this is exactly my point! And im glad you got it, because they now are using video to ban Eduardo, and UEFA has clearly said NO to video ecvidence earlier. And this “rule” i made up, it’s good, but it is impossible to use. Every match must be seen time and time again in slowmotion in order to fetch any minor cheat.
You also put it brilliantly, when you mention players diving in order to prevent getting demolished by his opponent. What if Eduardo thought the keepers arms would come out and the he jumpes over them just to fall afterwards….is it a dive then?
OR if Almunia last weekend had been just as intelligent as the Celtic keeper, and kept his arms away – he would never have touched the allready falling Rooney.
Infact, i think the Rooney incident is hiliarious! the video evidence here is so clear, its a shame that no English newspaper even have mentioned it (I have not heard or read anything about it at least). If you watch the videos posted on this site, its obvious that Rooneys dive is just as bad as as Eduardos…the difference is the cleaverness of the keeper (http://thegoonblog.com/2009/08/see-wayne-rooneys-clear-dive-in-todays-match/).
Well, thats it for me today…all we have to now is to wait for the anoying national break to be over.
Norwegian Gunner
September 2nd, 2009 at 4:37 pm
@Ege
They commented on Rooney’s dive at the weekend mate and this is what they had to say;
‘He was clever to make that opportunity’.
There is a massive clear cut stone cold ‘anti-arsenal’ behaviour doing the rounds. Countless arguments have alreadfy been posted about Ashley Young’s dive in the Europa cup. what is Eufa doing about it? Nothing they are busy punishing Eduardo and Arsenal for knocking out a team that had 2 shots on target in 180minutes.
This rule seems to be made for teams against scotland.
I don’t hear loud voices calling for Aiden Mcgeady to be banned 2 matches for diving, and he did it at a time when the uproar on Edurado’s supposed intent was red hot. That is, this past weekend.
They are using every possible means to demoralise us.
September 2nd, 2009 at 4:41 pm
im with minesy. EVERYONE WEAR WITCH HATS.
September 2nd, 2009 at 5:15 pm
@Minesy – I really like your point about players appealing for throw-ins and corners when they got the last touch. Nani won a scandalous corner against Sagna on Saturday, then applauded the ref – and Sagna got booked for dissent.
It annoys me, and I suppose as “unsporting behaviour” is legally worthy of a yellow card, but it would be absurd to ban someone for 2 games for it.
What’s clear to me is that all this retrospect will lead to chaos. They need to decide how to use the technology during games, then use it.
September 3rd, 2009 at 12:23 am
@Grab
Thing is the media and pundits say diving shoud be punished cos it’s cheating. Fair enough.
But what about taking a throw or free kick from the wrong place ? Going down holding a part of your body that hasn’t been touched ?
Claiming a throw, corner or goal kick when you know it has gone off you or one of your team ? What about deliberate time wasting ?
All these are forms of cheating. Does anyone try to stop them ? It could be done relatively easily. But no …
And they wonder why the get accused of corruption …
September 3rd, 2009 at 6:46 pm
UEFA have a big job to do further. They have to analyze every football game in Europe from now on.
There worst is, that Uefa don`t care. They are some spoilt men who does like they want. They dont think. They just eat and make some judgement. They should be really blind, and very stupid if they don`t know anything about cheating. Like Eduardo was the first one.
Yea, it was maybe his first. I hated when Arsenal played Man Utd and Ronaldo get his usally frikick by diving. I felt no one cares. Thats why I think this is totally wierd. Eduardo two match ban? What in the hell are you doing all the day. There could be many questions.