Time for Rosell to Act.

Enough is Enough! Enough of turning the other cheek! Enough of playing the nice guy! Enough of the diplomatic approach! It's time for Rosell to raise his voice and make the Cule's voices heard as the RFEF continues to make life difficult for Barça. 

Just when we thought the Spanish league and its cronies could not get any lower, they decided to go ahead and apply the rules as they saw fit. The Spanish league's Refereeing Technical Committee were outraged by Pique's comments following Barça’s 3-1 victory over Sporting Gijon. Pique was not too pleased with referee Carlos Velasco Carballo's decision to send him off so early into the second half. Pique voiced his displeasure to the media by saying "At half-time I told the referee it was a penalty on Keita and he kept that [in his head], I have a feeling of premeditation". It would later be reported that Carballo did threaten Pique with “You, shut up, you'll get a red card", when Pique approached the referee as they walked off the pitch and into the tunnels after the halftime whistle blew.

The following day, the Refereeing Technical Committee head honcho, Victoriano Arminio, condemned Pique for his comments that questioned Carballo's integrity and planned on making a formal complaint against the defender. Arminio seemed outraged and told Radio Nacional, "Pique's comments are unfortunate and very serious”. "They make your blood boil, sportsmen must respect each other. His comments affect the state of refereeing and we will obviously report him."

Say what? This makes his blood boil? Of course, when the spokesperson of the Refereeing Technical Committee, José Ángel Jiménez Muñoz was asked about Mourinho's actions by waiting for the referee next to his car at the Camp Nou parking lot, he shrugged it off and said whatever Mourinho did or said to the referee was not published by the media the same way Pique's were. By the way, it was revealed that Mr. Muñoz is member of Falange Española de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista, which is General Franco's fascist anti-Catalan party so make what you want of that. So, yes, it does not come down to the action but whether or not it was published. Oddly enough, those comments were published in the papers for all to read but as we have seen this season, there appears to be double standards when it comes to Barça and when it comes to Real Madrid.

Back in January, Mourinho waited in the Camp Nou parking garage and had words with referee Teixeira Vitienes following their elimination from the Copa del Rey. Mourinho shouted at Vitienes, “¡Artista, cómo te gusta joder a los profesionales!” which loosely translated means “You screw over those who are working" before adding, “You don’t respect serious professionals, now you'll smoke a cigar and go off laughing, it’s a disgrace.” Prior to that outburst from Mourinho, Casillas approached Teixeira and said: “¡Vete de fiesta con ellos a celebrarlo, tanta polla y tanta mierda!” which loosely translated means “Teixeira, now you can go out and party with Barça!” along with some fine expletives at the end that I won't bother translating.

Funny how the media had those comments yet were ignored by the committee. Ironically, those two were not disciplined for their disrespectful actions because it was not in the referee's final report. That was always the standard when it came to action on and off the pitch. Grounds for punishment had to come from anything reported in the referee's final report. Pique's comments weren't in any final report but Mr. Arminio decided to take action now? Just this past weekend, Mourinho called the 4th referee the most arrogant referee he had ever met. So what exactly does it take for the league to come down on Real Madrid when their manager and players step out of line with comments?

One Madridista argued that there is a difference between insulting a referee and questioning his integrity. Really? So I guess those comments by Mourinho and Casillas were not calling into question the referee's integrity; just merely insulting him. If you buy that argument, then I have a broom for you to go sweep the desert with (old Lebanese proverb). So what are the standards exactly and that is what the FC Barcelona Board of Directors spokesman Toni Freixa said today a few hours ago as the club responded to Mr. Arminio's comments. 

We have already witnessed the double standards of the league when it comes to awarding Real Madrid penalties and not awarding Barça penalties along what is considered a penalty offense and a red card offense. Look, I am a firm believer that big clubs do get calls go in their favor more times than the smaller clubs and that Barcelona's away form has been poor. With that said, it's been rather fishy how Madrid keep getting the break in their away games in the New Year against Mallorca, Getafe and Rayo Vallecano that has Pep even fighting hard to bite his tongue.However, Mr. Arminio's actions of seeking to lodge a formal complaint against Pique was the last straw and this is where Mr. Rosell needs to step forward and voice our displeasure and expose the hypocrisy that has bothered all Cules. The decision of the board to not attend tomorrow's RFEF meeting is the wrong approach.

I can understand Pep's decision not to criticize the referees and Rosell’s decision to sit back and follow suit was admirable. However, I believe he dropped the ball when the club failed to go after Mourinho for assaulting assistant coach, Tito Vilanova, in the second leg of the Super Copa. He left that decision to the powers that be and their final decision was a one match ban for the next Super Copa game. If that decision was not a slap in the face, then their lack action on disciplining Pepe after he deliberately stepped on Messi's hand was a sucker punch. Yet again, the club opted to play the nice guy role and opted not to file a complaint against Pepe and left that decision to the powers that be. Low and behold, Pepe was not punished and was playing in the second leg where he almost pulled off another despicable act of stepping on Dani Alves's hand.

So enough is enough! Enough of turning the other cheek! Enough of playing the nice guy! Enough of the diplomatic approach! It's time for Rosell to raise his voice and make the Cule's voices heard. It's time he went after the RFEF the same he way he went after Laporta. For too long he has held off going after Real Madrid after all their dirty tactics since the arrival of Mourinho that has seen our club's name and image dragged through the mud. Rosell needs to stand up and act now. Guardiola is upset, the players are upset and the Cules are fed up and upset. It’s time to stop being reactive and become proactive. There has been some speculation that Rosell is being quiet to avoid the recent bad press coming out of Brazil about his alleged dealings with Ricardo Teixeira, the current president of Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) who is under investigation for fraud and corruption. If so, then remaining silent only hurts him and the club when he should come out and quash those rumors.

Additionally, he was recently accused by, Albert Perrin, a former Vice-President of the club during the Laporta era, that Rosell and the current board were disrespecting the RFEF by not appearing at meeting. Mr. Perrin said,

"In our time we also had a good relationship with the Federation, because Laporta was always at the meetings. These are things that make you well liked. Back then, it was always Madrid who weren't there. Now, it is Barça who are not there. The Barça president is doing very little. For the re-election of Villar [RFEF president], he was not there."

If that is true, then it was a mistake by the club that can be rectified by the board members and the president appearing at future meetings. In conclusion, now is not the time for Rosell to have others come out and speak on his behalf when it's his duty to speak out on our behalf. It's time he acted as a president with a less of a businesslike approach and be more of a politician.

I can understand Pep's decision not to criticize the referees and Rosell’s decision to sit back and follow suit was admirable. However, I believe he dropped the ball when the club failed to go after Mourinho for assaulting assistant coach, Tito Vilanova, in the second leg of the Super Copa. He left that decision to the powers that be and their final decision was a one match ban for the next Super Copa game. If that decision was not a slap in the face, then their lack action on disciplining Pepe after he deliberately stepped on Messi's hand was a sucker punch. Yet again, the club opted to play the nice guy role and opted not to file a complaint against Pepe and left that decision to the powers that be. Low and behold, Pepe was not punished and was playing in the second leg where he almost pulled off another despicable act of stepping on Dani Alves's hand.

So enough is enough! Enough of turning the other cheek! Enough of playing the nice guy! Enough of the diplomatic approach! It's time for Rosell to raise his voice and make the Cule's voices heard. It's time he went after the RFEF the same he way he went after Laporta. For too long he has held off going after Real Madrid after all their dirty tactics since the arrival of Mourinho that has seen our club's name and image dragged through the mud. Rosell needs to stand up and act now. Guardiola is upset, the players are upset and the Cules are fed up and upset. It’s time to stop being reactive and become proactive. There has been some speculation that Rosell is being quiet to avoid the recent bad press coming out of Brazil about his alleged dealings with Ricardo Teixeira, the current president of Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) who is under investigation for fraud and corruption. If so, then remaining silent only hurts him and the club when he should come out and quash those rumors.

Additionally, he was recently accused by, Albert Perrin, a former Vice-President of the club during the Laporta era, that Rosell and the current board were disrespecting the RFEF by not appearing at meeting. Mr. Perrin said,

"In our time we also had a good relationship with the Federation, because Laporta was always at the meetings. These are things that make you well liked. Back then, it was always Madrid who weren't there. Now, it is Barça who are not there. The Barça president is doing very little. For the re-election of Villar [RFEF president], he was not there."

If that is true, then it was a mistake by the club that can be rectified by the board members and the president appearing at future meetings. In conclusion, now is not the time for Rosell to have others come out and speak on his behalf when it's his duty to speak out on our behalf. It's time he acted as a president with a less of a businesslike approach and be more of a politician.

* Thanks to @Barcastuff with some of the links and translations.

 

Time for Fútbol to join the club and use replay.

As we enter a new year, an old dilemma still haunts our beloved game of football. Just these past few weeks, the calls of ref bias reared its ugly head again. The big surprise though, was that it was coming from Barça fans this time. The missed calls on the obvious handball in the Espanyol game coupled with the booking to Iniesta after he was fouled inside the box in the Betis game and the missed calls in the Madrid Mallorca game upset many fans who believe the gap between the archrivals should be down to two points. I don’t think there is a bias by the refs. It’s just incompetence. I also think that the idea of instant replay has to become a reality in the near future so we don't have to witness another poor decision like Iniesta's booking against Betis this past weekend.

This debate has been going on for a while with those for and against instant replay. There was even a very lively discussion about it on twitter between me, ESPN Soccernet’s Eduardo Alvarez and the infamous Barcastuff this past weekend. The discussion went back and forth between us regarding the issues that refs are not intentionally favoring any side; past or present in recent history. Eduardo made the point that referees need to be full-time professionals and not part-timers. He made the strong point that if they remain part-timers, then the pressure on the referees will keep growing, and they will remain unprepared and amateur as they are nowadays.

Barcastuff countered that the pressure though is coming from Real Madrid, its fans and the Madrid press. I have to say I agree with that statement. One of the best examples was during last year’s Champions League Semi-Finals. Madridistas were upset with Wolfgang Stark’s decision to send off Pepe. Afterwards, ITV’s Andy Townsend was threatened by angry Madrid fans who thought he was Stark. If this is what Townsend went through, imagine what the Spanish refs go through then. It is not that farfetched for referees to feel the wrath of fans. It wasn’t that long ago that Anders Frisk retired following Mourinho’s accusations that resulted in threats made at him and his family from Chelsea fans.

Now back to Eduardo’s comment that referees should be full-time professionals. I agree and this is something that many others have said before and the NFL is currently thinking about making their referees become fulltime. I don’t think the referees are biased. They just are not that good. It seems like the game is advancing every year while they regress backwards. I don’t think referees becoming full-time professionals is enough though and that more needs to be implemented to aid the referees and provide just results.

More referees was one suggestion and perhaps it might work. However, we all agreed that instant replay/TV technology is something we all want to be implemented someday.  Of course, that topic has ruffled the feathers of the purists for a long time. I can understand their views against it. It’s not part of the game, it slows down games, and it takes away from the game. I agree with all except the latter. I am sorry but I didn’t buy Platini’s explanation that human error is part of the game. Sorry, but this sport is now a business where managers lose their jobs and players might end up losing out on success. I don’t believe Mexico’s and England’s national teams were too pleased with FIFA’s apology after their elimination from the World Cup.

The neutrals might say they prefer it that way but I would be hard pressed to believe any fan shares that view after seeing his team get the wrong end of a call. We are now in the year 2012 and NCAA Football and Basketball use instant replay. Heck, even Major League Baseball uses instant replay and that sport has been around just as long as fútbol and has its own share of purists. Yet, I never heard any of them complain about it when it has been used to get the call right. Now some argue how can we rely on instant replay when the NFL can’t seem to get calls right with the use of replay? Valid point but the NFL is a different sport where they can challenge for many things unlike football where we want it just for a few things such as off sides, hand balls, did the ball cross the goal line and foul or dive for a penalty. I prefer we compare it to NHL’s use of instant replay since the NHL and fútbol share many similarities.

NHL’s instant replay applies to only goals. There are basically eight things they can review and guess what, I can’t think of many instances where they got a goal wrong with the minor exception of the Dallas Stars Buffalo Sabres series clinching goal involving Brett Hull skate in the crease during overtime in the Finals controversy. Other than that, they have gotten it right and if I am wrong, please let me know. Now, for fútbol, it would be used for the following reasons. Did the ball cross the goal line? Was it a handball to score or deny a goal?; Was the player onside or not and was it a foul or a dive inside the box? You can also make the argument for off the ball decisions like Zidane’s head butt. I can’t believe that fans would rather see a game be decided by a blown call. Maradona’s Hand of God anyone? Instant replay is the way of the future and FIFA needs to get the ball rolling on it quickly. Every sport seems to have it now except our beloved sport. Of course, this would mean more cameras, more camera angles and even a video goal judge so the referee doesn’t have to go through the peep show booth that NFL referees go through. Let someone upstairs review it like they do in the NHL.

The problem though is that this issue has to be brought up by the players. Players whining to the media about bad calls is not enough. They have to demand it. Barcastuff made the argument that players union have other concerns such as protecting the players. I beg to differ and think the players and their unions have to make their voices heard along with the league presidents. It’s a win-win situation for everybody. Clubs and fans no longer have to witness their team suffer a bad call. Leagues and teams can make money from the TV time used during the instant replay. I don’t buy into the argument that it stalls games by affecting continuity and momentum since we go through that already from players wasting time for injuries or protesting a bad call.

Until then, we have to sit back and watch referees make horrible calls such as the missed handball in the Barcelona derby or the wrong call on the disallowed Mallorca goal for off sides or the missed Sergio Ramos handball near the end of the game.  We cannot continue to live at a time where teams could get relegated or lose its chance at winning a trophy from a bad referee’s decision. Eduardo made the point that he didn’t think the Spanish league has been decided by refereeing mistakes. I agree with him when he said that there will be tons of ref mistakes after 38 matches but ultimately, the best side always wins. He detests this sort of debate and made the obvious claim that both Real Madrid and Barcelona get way too many calls to complain about it. I concur and think that’s the case in all the leagues when it comes to big teams getting the benefit of the calls against the smaller teams.  In case you didn’t know, Eduardo is a Real Madrid fan who is very fair and level headed in my opinion.

I agreed with him about the best side always wins and that’s why I don’t blame the referees for Barça being in second place. Much of the blame lies with their away from albeit some of the referee calls have not helped either. With that said, we should not accept incompetence from non-fulltime referees that affect the outcomes of close games that could lead to teams being relegated or hindering teams from winning a title when there is video technology available. So I hope that the push for video technology grows stronger. Please make it happen FIFA!