by Martin Rødvand on September 2, 2009
A very brief statement from UEFA yesterday:
The UEFA Control and Disciplinary Body today examined the case of the Arsenal FC player Eduardo “for deceiving the referee” during the UEFA Champions League play-off second leg match on 26 August against Celtic FC, and has suspended the player for two UEFA club competition matches.
Arsenal are currently holding their breath while waiting for a more thorough explanation from UEFA before they decide if they will appeal the decision.
The Eduardo case is a pretty clear-cut case, and I hope Arsenal will be sensible and accept the ban. And if Arsenal decides to appeal I hope UEFA will be firm and keep away from their trend of reducing bans after appeals.
by Martin Rødvand on August 14, 2009
Les Arbitres, a documentary about football referees filmed during last year’s European Championship premiered last night at the Locarno film festival in Switzerland. The documentary portraits the difficult job of the football referees, and the immense pressure they’re under while refereeing in a major tournament.
I love this section from The Guardian’s article:
The tension is spelled out in an opening sequence featuring Swiss referee Massimo Busacca during the Greece-Sweden game. The only sound is snatches of dialogue between him and his assistants on their radio communication system.
“Matthias, are you sure?” Busacca asks an assistant before showing a yellow card. He later snaps at his fourth official when warned a storm is on the way. “It’s not my problem, shut up.” At the final whistle, he looks to the heavens and wipes his brow, before telling a Greek player: “We are not gods, we make mistakes.”
The 77-minute film is already set to be distributed in Germany and France with other countries still unconfirmed. Let’s hope the film gets distributed across the continent as we need people to see how the referees operate and prepare.
Update: A pdf with more info about the film. Note the title “Kill the referee” was the working title.
