BRIAN GLANVILLE
writes for worldsoccer.com each week.
COMMON KNOWLEDGE?
18/06/08
Surely the most controversial goal of the whole European tournament was the one which Ruud Van Nistelrooy knocked in to put Holland ahead against Italy.
When a shot by Wesley Sneijder was clearly going to fly past a post Van Nistelrooy, standing all alone in the penalty area, stuck out a foot and put the ball into the net. Whereupon to the outrage of the Italians and to the general surprise, Van Nistelrooy – clearly surprised himself – was awarded a goal.
The lame excuse, masquerading as an explanation, given was that though Cristiano Panucci the Italian defender was at that moment lying injured behind the goal line after a collision with his keeper Gigi Buffon, he technically counted as having been on the field! Despite the fervent procrastination of UEFA and allies, there is no doubt in my mind that the decision was wrong and that no such law actually exists.
The source of my certainty is none other than the chief UEFA apologist for the decision: David Taylor the general secretary of UEFA. Admitting that the law as it stands doesn’t deal with such situations directly, but that the interpretation was “common knowledge among referees.” Eh? Not just common knowledge, sports fans, but common knowledge amomg referees. So until such time as the law making body the International Board promulgates it, this simply isn’t a law at all.
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There was much controversy, too, over the goals scored in the match between Austria and Poland. As we know, Austria equalised at the death from a bitterly contested penalty.
Having gone behind, let us note, from a goal which should unquestionably have been ruled offside; something which the English referee Howard Webb subsequently admitted. There is no doubt at all that when the Polish-Brazilian Roger Guerreiro put the ball into the Austrian net he was blatantly offside, since only a single defender and not please note even the goalkeeper, stood between him and the goal line.
By contrast, the penalty award by Howard Webb was beyond doubt justified, and the subsequent ranting and raving of Leon Beenhakker, Dutch manager of Poland who swore unconvincingly that he had never had problems with a referee in all his long career, was wholly unjustified. Mariusz Levandowski, the Polish defender, tugged the jersey of Austria’s Sebastian Prodl. The most Beenhakker could shakily claim was that punishing such a penalty decision was “a custom more honoured in the breach than in the observance.” In other words defenders by and large are allowed to get away with such fouls. Well on this occasion, they didn’t.
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And now, at Stamford Bridge, Big Phil Scolari. I’m sure he will do well. You or I, dear reader, would probably do well, given the untold millions that the oligarch Roman Abramovich will pour into the club.
Incidentally, Michel Platini somewhat spoiled his recent case when he listed Chelsea among those English clubs which have run up huge debts – Liverpool, Manchester United – but buy players. Chelsea’s debt is indeed immense, but it is wholly guaranteed by Abramovich to whom it is almost negligible.
Big Phil has had a somewhat chequered career, despite his World Cup winning achievement. That was in Brazil in 2002, and though by the end the Brazilians were being admired for their flowing football, they didn’t start like that. Indeed, they looked excessively cautious till, later in the tournament, the pressure of the fantasisti, Ronaldo, Rivelino, Ronaldinho, obliged Big Phil to give them more leeway.
With Portugal, till the present tournament, he had achieved relatively little, failing to exploit home advantage in the previous European championship of 2004, losing twice to modest Greece, and squeezing past a mediocre and ultimately 10 man England on penalties in the subsequent World Cup. When he was manager of Gremio in Brazil he was notorious for his cynical policy of encouraging his players to commit petty fouls away from their penalty box, in order to break up movements by the opposition.
But I cannot join Ricardo Carvalho in weeping tears for Avram Grant, surely no martyr. Defeat so humiliatingly at Barnsley, tactical errors that cost Chelsea the League Cup final versus Spurs, the absurdity of playing Michael Essien as a vulnerable right back, rather than a dynamic midfielder, in the European Cup Final in Moscow. I still think Abramovich was wrong to get rid of the far more inspirational Mourinho, who should do well enough now at Inter.
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The splendidly precocious 17-year-old midfielder Aaron Ramsey had chosen Arsenal rather than Manchester United though I do wonder whether he might be better off at Everton, who also wanted him. At least Manchester United were seemingly prepared to let him stay another season at Cardiff City. Everton would probably have put him straight into their first team. We can only hope Arsenal will; after all there is a gap in their midfield after the defection of Flamini to Milan.
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Speaking of Arsenal, that was a strange outburst by Arsene Wenger, criticising early play in the European Championship – which surely had its attractive matches later on – lamenting that the players were tired and, somewhat anomalously, that they were hampered by the fact they’d had several weeks off, after the end of their domestic season. Yet surely these are criticisms which could justly be made of any world Cup or European final tournament, so far as European based players are concerned. Such tournaments invariably come in summer at the end of a taxing European season. What can be done?
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Brian's latest book is England Managers. The book is published by Headline and is available online and in all good bookstores.
A new revised edition of Brian Glanville's definitive World Cup book, The Story of the World Cup, has just been published and is available from all good bookshops.
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