Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Wed Apr 24, 2013 6:44 pm
McClennan wrote:
Okay I understand the cumulative aspect, however have the FA applied that sort of ruling before?
They did with Joey Barton. He was found guilty of two counts of violence against you lot (they cleared him of his pathetic little head butt). He got 12 games for it.
I was being flippant although the two incidents are comparable i.e. Beckham didn't get a ten match ban.
Beckham was a stupid fool for doing what he did. He was massively punished by being sent off, his team went out and he was blamed. He was Argentina's idiot stooge. There was no reason for any massive ban. His kick would have been laughed off by a 6 year old girl. He probably did serve an automatic ban for a red card for violent conduct though.
Don't know if somebody has mentioned it already but Rohan Ricketts has tweeted taht Jermaine Defoe bit Mascherano in 2006, received a booking and no ban. That seems like a sensible decision. I mean, if he'd bitten his ear off different story but it was nothing other a "let go of me" reaction, akin to kicking out at someone.
That's 2006. An incident with a player with a pretty clean record. I'm guessing that it wasn't screened live on TV and didn't receive massive worldwide coverage.
This is 2013. Suarez has already served a ban for biting. He's recently served a long ban for racial abuse. Barely a month goes by where he's not involved in acts of cheating or borderline violence. He wasn't punished during the game and he ended up scoring the equalising goal in a match where he should have been off.
Do you really think that the 2013 FA disciplinary board should be using a 7 year old ruling and therefore letting Suarez off? I think that's ridiculous. I think the 2013 FA are pretty much saying the 2006 decision was wrong and has no relevance.
The LFC defence was pretty much stolen from our defence of Eden Hazard over the ballboy kicking. Some lower league player actually got into an argument with a ball boy, shoved him and kicked him. He was booked and the FA said no further action was needed. But this was last season (or in the last couple of seasons - CBA to check). So it was pretty much the same FA Disciplinary system at work.
So that's why Hazard only got the standard 3 match ban on top of his red. And that's pretty much the defence that Liverpool want to apply to Suarez. But when you're committing your second biting offence, when you've recently been found guilty of racial abuse, when you are seen continually cheating and fouling and feeling no repentance, that defence is never going to work.
