Watched the game live. Seen a replay or two. Read some reports. But still no closer to ascertaining for what offence Rooney was red-carded.
Anyone know for sure?
It was a combination of things. First, he kicked the guy in the junk. Second, he pushed the other guy. And thrid, he has a reputation. None of the three by themselves would have been enough, but taken all together the ref had no choice but to give him the gate.
Kicking a guy in the balls is not grounds for a red card? Tough game…
The ref was on the spot, but didn’t reach for his card when Rooney landed on Carvalho. but only after many seconds had elapsed, and Rooney had pushed Ronaldo in the chest. Hence the confusion. Seems all a bit post-hoc on behalf of the ref, and now, of course, FIFA.
He didn’t tee up and tag him, it was obvious on the replay but pretty subtle on the field. Unfortunately for him he did it right in front of the ref.
Well, German player Frings faces FIFA justice later today: BBC SPORT | Football | World Cup 2006 | Teams | Germany | Frings suspended for semi-final
Can’t wait to see how long his ban is…
Super slow-mo replays can make any “offence” look heinous, by the way.
LATEST NEWS: Rooney, loudly protesting his innocence, has been given until Thursday 6 July to give FIFA a written statement about his red card.
…and Frings got a two-match ban (the second match suspended) for his punch in the melee after the Germany-Argentina game. One or two Argentinian players and officials still to pay for those disgraceful scenes, I feel.
And man, he stomped on the guy, jeez.
First, the guy was only on the ground because he had thrown himself there to try and draw a foul. He then wrapped his legs around Rooney to prevent him from playing the ball. In this mess he gets his nuts stepped on. What did he expect? TFB.
Second, I love how FIFA looks at this play “after the fact”, but refused to even *look *at a headbutt from Luis Figo the game previous, despite it being a flagrant and balatant attempt to injure Mark van Bommel (it wasn’t heads colliding in the heat of play, he headbutted his opponent in a face to face argument). FIFAs reasoning? The ref dolled out a punishment on the field (yellow) so they weren’t going to look at the tape because they considered the matter “handled”. (Cite: Figo set to escape punishment for headbutt)
So, why exactly are they investigating the Rooney foul? Wasn’t it “handled” on the field?
FIFA has to be more corrupt than figure skating. These guys are absolutely mental.
A straight red card for violent conduct carries with it an automatic minimum one-match ban. All such cards are reviewed after the match, whereupon the governing body can decide whether the violent conduct was so severe as to warrant an extended ban. So a hearing after a straight red is not contradicting the official; it is fulfilling the normal procedure, which the ref knows about.
By contrast, if a player receives a yellow card then the matter is considered closed; the referee has dealt with it on the scene. There are no disciplinary follow-up procedures for a single yellow. FIFA would only get involved if an absolutely egregious refereeing mistake has taken place, and a simple disagreement over severity is pretty much never regarded as such a mistake. Had Ivanov completely missed the head-butt, Figo would probably be banned right now, but for better or for worse, FIFA and their member Associations do not get involved in officially contradicting their match referees and changing their judgments. Equally, had Ivanov (properly) given a straight red, Figo would almost certainly have received an extended ban. But the referee gave a yellow, so FIFA couldn’t intervene without radically changing current practice, something it’s best not to do in the knockout stages of a World Cup.
I loathe FIFA, and in particular believe that Sepp Blatter is out to destroy the sport, but they are being entirely consistent here.
Godammit, I opened this thread thinking 60 Minutes had finally canned Andy Rooney . . .
It was far from obvious. Everything about his actions look to me to be someone intent on playing the ball. That’s what he’s looking at. And the ref wasn’t pulling out a card until the push.
Well, sorry to disappoint you Eve but we do have a 19-year-old who could kick him in the nuts for you if you like.
Back on the subject of World Cup refereeing, I just totted up that in the 60 matches of the World Cup played so far, there have been 26 red cards to date. That, it turns out is just under half the total in the entirety of the English Premiership’s 2005/06 season, in which 380 matches were played. Refs have given out red cards at almost one every other match in this WC. Compare:
Premiership 05/06 : 0.15 reds/match
Serie A 05/06 : 0.20 reds/match
Primera Liga 05/06 : 0.25 reds/match
World Cup 06 : 0.43 reds/match
How can this be a good idea? Are the players suddenly becoming twice or thrice as ill-behaved? And we get Sepp “5-a-side” Blatter saying there haven’t been enough cards. It is to laugh.
That’s the key bit of factual evidence for me.
And looking at your figures, Dead Badger, it looks as if my worst fears have been realised, and FIFA are using a Spanish “referee” (AKA insecure fellow dressed in black so he can assert his non-existent authority) as their technical advisor.