Football, the beautiful game?

FOOTBALL for all its beauty and majesty has to be one of the ugliest sports on the planet today. Last night proved this when the angry trolls of sporting ‘justice’ emerged from behind their sofas onto the screens of laptops and smartphones around the globe.

I’ll preface this entire piece by openly stating that yes; I am a Manchester United fan. My dad is, my mam is and my brother is. I’m fairly certain even my dog is. Although the latter is open to debate as she has split personalities and probably prefers darts. My point being that with every point I make in this piece, you know it’s being made by a United fan.

United v Madrid, in terms of European football, perhaps global, it doesn’t get much bigger. Two giants of Europe and two of the competitions top rated sides, the glitz and the glamour of football would be on show and has Madrid’s master at arms, Jose Mourinho, put it – “The world will stand still for this match.”

The world didn’t stand still. Instead the world took to social networking sites and ranted about a decision that turned the game on its head. United were leading 1-0. They looked in relative control but in truth knew a second goal was still needed to really be in the driving seat. Cue Turkish referee Cuneyt Cakir.

We’re at the hour mark roughly; Old Trafford is enjoying one of the best atmospheres it’s had in a long time. For a team with such a large following it often annoys me at how quiet and mundane atmospheres at United games are. Not tonight though, Los Blancos were in town and ‘The Pride of All Europe’ was at stake. That simmering atmosphere was in a caldron, and it was coming to a boil – Just not the boil anyone expected.

Nani and Arbeloa go for head height ball. Nani attempts to bring it down out of the air on his laces, Arbeloa goes for the old fashioned defender route of head first. They collide. Nani’s Nike boots go studs first into the torso of the Madrid right back. Both players engage in a few moments of soldier down. The ref momentarily surrounded by players and ushers them away suggesting he’s got this in hand. He knows what he’s doing. There’s no consultation with assistants, everyone is expecting Nani to get up, be issued a yellow card and everyone gets on with the game. Nani does get up, he is issued with a card, but there is just one small problem, the colour of that card.

It was red. It was like a twist ending of a Hitchcock film, for United fans this was horror, for most football fans this was the ‘WTF??’ moment. From a personal point of view, I think it was the wrong decision. A yellow would have sufficed, it wasn’t a deliberate foul, it wasn’t malicious, its only in the last split second when Nani is already mid-air like Free Willy that his gaze leaves the sight of the ball and turns to Arbeloa, who has gone from Nani’s peripheral vision to in focus and looming like the iceberg for the Titanic.

United are incensed by this, a sending off? It’s the biggest mistake in the history of mistakes. How dare this referee do this, in Old Trafford. To a United player. In the Champions League!! Cakir, it appears, has ruined football.

Let’s ‘whoa the pony’ there a second -  I do think it was the wrong decision and unquestionably it was a significant turning point in the game, but, football isn’t just about one event. United fans have slated the ref for single handily causing them the match. On Twitter there was even fans pointing out that Cakir had a Twitter account, on which he followed just 39 people, two of whom are Real Madrid and Cristiano Ronaldo. If only there was a second shooter or grassy knoll to go with the conspiracy being hatched from that information.

The decision may have ruined the game, but let’s not gloss over the fact that United had two major decisions go in their favour. Gonzlao Higuian’s six yard tap in disallowed by Cakir for pretty much nothing. Ramos out jumped Van Persie, they barely tangled on the way down, Higuain taps it past De Gea but the whistle had already blown. It didn’t count.

Rafael put in a good performance too, but arguably he should have been sent off for a handball on the line preventing another Madrid goal. The young Brazilian flung himself away from the post he was marking, arms, legs, and head, the works - just thrown in front of the ball in an effort to stop Madrid gaining more of an advantage. It worked, and the ref waved play on.

Two huge decisions, both in United’s favour, but of course football fans don’t work with the balance of decisions. They take the one they see as the biggest injustice and use it as crutch, as method to vent their issues, in some cases as a justification to threaten others. But just to spread it out a bit United have had a fair few decisions go for them and against them in times gone by.

Vincent Kompany and Jonjo Shelvy being sent off while playing against United for tackles that weren’t as bad as many others in the same matches. A Nani goal against spurs in 2008 that confused everyone, Nani went down in the box, grabbed the ball with his hands, no penalty, Spurs keeper Gomes presumes it’s a free kick and places the ball down to take it, ref waves play on, Nani hops up and scores in an open net. A dive and handball ignored and in the ensuing madness United get a goal that really should never have been. 

Pendro Mendes’ wonder strike on the flapping Roy Carroll back in the day, a definite goal but again United got away with it. The list goes on, and yes there are just as many incidents of United being done by dodgy officiating, as much as the ABU’s would like to think otherwise.

Referees in football are human. I don’t blame Cakir for what happened last night. He is working within a framework provided by UEFA and the powers that be. Football is regressive sport. UEFA and FIFA alike are the Catholic Church of sport - hell bent on maintaining tradition and failing to move with the times and standards in order to allow football fit the 21^st century. It seems similar to Rugby wanting to remain amateur to keep with its gentlemanly nature. Even rugby abandoned that dream and now in its professional guise for over 17 years it’s growing and flourishing.    

For football the problem is in an age of live pause and rewind, HD/3D television, the internet and computer technology, you can’t keep a sport rooted to the 1920’s. Every second and every decision is open to forensic scrutiny and governing bodies seem reluctant to accept this. Human error is inevitable, last night the referee had almost two minutes to consult with his colleagues or think about the decision. It wasn’t a decision made under pressure or in the heat of the moment. It was a decision made on a single viewing and from a poor judgement call. Ultimately he was just working within the framework and rules that he has to adhere to.

Sure, FIFA have put out a request for companies to submit their tenure for goal line technology but this won’t solve every problem in the game. Referees need to be assisted in their decision making. In the case of a foul, the game has already stopped what a difference it makes if the ref takes an extra minute to consult with a TV official or view a replay in order to make the right decision. This is where rugby is streets ahead of football.

I was on facebook and twitter straight after the red card, I was one of the ones disagreeing completely and saying that yes, it had ruined the match, but then I seen the reaction of others. It was embarrassing. Instead of an intelligent debate on the issue or instead of a decent conversation about the match we’re hit by a wall of abuse and childish comments that just remind me how ridiculous the entire thing is. 

We all react to refereeing decisions, in the heat of the moment we all shout at the TV and call the ref a wanker or whatever the case may be, but I think there’ll be a few people waking up today slightly embarrassed over their reaction and how they went about voicing their opinion. I don’t just mean United fans by that, fans of United’s rivals are just as bad. Whatever about friendly banter, we all love a bit of that but here is a selection of some of my favourite comments from last night, these all appeared in my Facebook timeline – if you spot your own, high 5….

‘HA HA HA All you Manc scum can go and fuck yourselves. Pikey bastards, hope their is anudder Munich plane crash and you all die!!! YNWA”  - I’m not the most grammatically inept person ever, evident from everything I’ve typed above, but even I can look at that post and admire it’s authors obvious lack of brain power.

‘Delighted to see Whiskey nose Fergie get what he deserves. Hope he fucking crashes on his way home the manc c**t’

‘All the united fans crying on facebook can fuck off. You reep what you sow you dirty cheating bastards hope yis all die.’

This is my favourite though; ‘Go cry to Munich man u fans. Nani the black prick deserves it! Hope your plane home hits the ground like a nigger being shot’  

I know… these people can vote and have kids. Worrying isn’t it? United fans aren’t innocent either though, the torrents of abuse towards the ref, including death threats I’ve seen on Twitter are ridiculous. I was sick to see United fans respond to the jibes of Liverpool fans with references to Hillsborough. I know that for many ‘96’ is just a number, in the same way that for many ‘Munich’ is just a place but these two seemingly innocuous terms carry baggage and history. For the most part both sets of fans are respectful but it’s the mindless few who think they’re funny or clever who make fools of themselves and reveal that ugly side of football, and now with the Internet it’s in your face.Sadly it leads to an element of mob mentality where the brainless few huddle together and support each other with ridiculous statements, skewing of facts and just pure bullshit.

It’s this kind of thing that makes me stop talking to people about football. Friendly rivalry is great, but when this sort of stuff is the best thing a so called football fan can offer up…I tap out, I couldn’t be bothered with that. If I wanted to listen to an arsehole I’d eat a tin of beans, bend over and wait for the conversation to begin.

Football is all about talking points, but when the people doing the talking offer comments like highlighted above, there is little point in even bothering to engage in it. The beautiful game is over run by ugly trolls. It’s something that the media won’t discuss; it’s something that is rarely ever discussed, only when there is a major race scandal or more recently with the justice for 96 campaign. Every match you can see it on Facebook and Twitter, these so called fans who it seems hate their rivals more than they love their own club. It’s slowly turning me away from football, mindless idiots who know nothing about nothing but have an opinion on everything. 

This isn’t preaching but having seen the reaction last night I just thought no, it’s not worth it anymore. The so called banter is reduced to lowest common denominator so the slow kids can keep up, harmless and thought out jibes, banter and opinions are great, but I’d like to think I’m not the only one that wishes the ugly trolls would go back behind the sofa and stay there.