If I had to sum up the moral fabric of the footballing world right now – I would have to say that in far too many quarters; the morals of football are akin to the morals of a whore. In fact the whore might just possibly be able to edge the moral high ground. Once more the inches of newspaper columns have been filled with stories which have left a blight on the footballing landscape. In a week which should be remembered for great performances on the pitch such as Manchester City’s 6-1 demolition of rivals Manchester United last weekend, the news off the pitch is over shadowing any such achievements and beauty on it.
With so many stories running simultaneously it’s hard to know where to begin to look at all that is wrong with the so called beautiful game. So I’m going to drop the names into a hat and pick out the subjects making the news for all the wrong reasons;
John Terry’ alleged racial slur at QPR defender Anton Ferdinand
Not complete with his sex scandal involving ex-team mate Wayne Bridge’s girlfriend last season, John Terry has returned to the headlines with accusations that he allegedly racially abused QPR defender Anton Ferdinand during last Sunday’s 1-0 defeat to their London rivals. It’s alleged that Terry called Anton a F**king Black C*nt, something Terry vehemently denies. Apparently according to Terry he called Anton a F**cking Blind C*nt. Well I guess that makes it OK then as long as it wasn’t a racially motivated attack. The matter has now been placed into the hands of the FA’s disciplinary and Governance Unit led by Director Darren Bailey who will investigate the matter further. Believing in the age old policy of being innocent until proven guilty the FA announced that Terry will be able to keep the Captains arm band for the forth coming England games against Spain and Sweden next month. This would surely be great news from a footballing point of view where it not for the fact that Rio Ferdinand brother of Anton could also be called into the squad for the two games alongside Captain Terry. That won’t cause any friction at all for starters will it and I’m sure the likes of Darren Bent, Ashley Young et al will be thrilled at the prospect of playing for a side captained by a man under investigation for possible racial abuse.
The Accusations being levelled at Terry follow on from allegations made by Manchester United defender Patrice Evra that he was racially abused by Liverpool player Luis Suarez during their recent game at Anfield, a claim that Suarez like Terry strongly denies.
Carlos Tevez – The did he, didn’t he refuse to play question?
A story that’s been rumbling on for some time now after the Argentine superstar reportedly refused to come on as a substitute for Manchester City in their recent Champions League defeat away to Bayern Munich. This week saw City find Tevez guilty of five breaches of contract by City, including a refusal to play. City took the hard line stance of fining Tevez four weeks wages reported to be in the region of a staggering £800,000. This was later reduced by the PFA to two week’s wages which is the maximum prescribed sanction as agreed by the FA, the EPL and the PFA. As mentioned earlier, what a shame that the efforts on the pitch of City team mates in the 6-1 derby day demolition of deadly rivals United have been over shadowed somewhat by the Tevez affair. The result was one of the biggest shocks if not the biggest shock result since the formation of the EPL.
Titus Bramble charged with sex offences
This afternoon Police have charged Sunderland defender Titus Bramble with two counts of sexual assault and one of urinating in public. Bramble was arrested last month and then re-arrested in October when a second allegation was made against the player although an allegation of drug possession has been dropped. In August of this year Tesfaye Bramble, brother of Titus and a former footballer himself was sentenced to four and a half years in prison after being convicted of raping a 19 year old woman. The former player had been out in Newcastle with his brother on the night of the attack.
Football facing £100 million Fraud Concern
A report published by PKF Accountants and Business Advisers in conjunction with the University of Portsmouth has warned that football clubs are ill prepared to counter fraud and that the total scale across the professional leagues estimated the fraud could account for more than £100 million each year. The report insists that the large majority of clubs neither have any plans in place to tackle such issues and neither do they have the resources to do so. Area’s highlighted for concern included; Ticket sales, merchandising, payroll and agents fees. The results were based upon answers given by football club finance directors to the Fraud in football survey.
FIFA TV rights deal handed to Blatter nephew
Amongst cries of foul play and corruption for many years at FIFA head of World Football, Anti-Corruption campaigners Transparency International have called on FIFA to be more open about its dealings after they awarded a TV deal to a company led by the nephew of Sepp Blatter who has been head of FIFA since 1998. Yesterday FIFA announced a deal with Infront Sports and Media to handle the sale of the TV rights in a number of Asian countries for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. What FIFA failed to disclose however is the President of Infront is one Phillippe Blatter, the FIFA Presidents nephew. The announcement came a week after FIFA set out a new 2 year plan ironically working with Transparency International to reform the organisation following a series of damaging corruption scandals. FIFA also disclosed that Infront have been awarded host broadcaster contracts. Whilst no accusations have been made that Blatter had no involvement in the deal directly it surely does raise a few eyebrows when you have a situation where such a large deal is issued considering the family ties between the two leaders of the two organisation involved.
The end of the current Tribunal system after the EPL threaten to pull football league club funding
For more details click onto the following link;
Chelsea fined £20,000 for failing to control their players
Chelsea have been fined a paltry £20,000 by the FA after admitting a charge that they failed to control their players in last weekend’s defeat to QPR. Referee Chris Foy sent off two Chelsea players; Didier Drogba and Jose Bosingwa in the 1-0 defeat and also awarded QPR a match winning penalty in the first half. The FA Charge related to the Chelsea players surrounding the referee immediately following the dismissal of Bosingwa. This isn’t the first time Chelsea have been hauled over the coals for failing to control their players. Who could ever forget Didier Drogba’s infamous outburst to the TV cameras following Chelsea’s defeat t o Barcelona in the Champions League?
A separate charge against Andre-Villas Boas about comments made about the referee Chris Hoy are yet to be ruled on by the FA.
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