TEESSIDE was rocked by a seismic tremor ranked 5.2 on the Richter scale last night. But despite early reports it is now clear that the bed-rattling disturbance was no earthquake... the furious subterranean activity was in fact Boro digging themselves in deeper
Some determined nocturnal spademanship by the club's big hitters has transformed what should have been a routine dust settling period after the rejection of the "frivolous" appeal against Jeremie Aliadiere's red card at Anfield and the additional punishment into a full on movement of football's political tectonic plates. Outraged Steve Gibson and Keith Lamb both switched to full-on bloody-minded Teessider mode and gave the FA's assorted 'amateurs' and 'silly little men' both barrels in a blast that will reverberate through the day.
Now we must brace ourselves for the aftershocks.
Whatever your thoughts on the club's decision to appeal - the rules only allow a specific incident to be reviewed not the events leading up to it; the referee had already said he had seen the whole incident so is deemed to have already dealt with Mascherano; Aliadiere had clearly struck or attempted to strike an opponent and was bang to rights; there was no question of mistaken identity; provocation is no defence; the manager accepted the card without much complaint after the game - there can be no doubting that most Boro fans, indeed most football fans, will instinctively agree with Steve Gibson's heart-felt attack on the jumped up petty apparatchniks that run the game in a blazered bubble of bureaucratic glee.
There is a clear feeling widespread within the game and among the fans that the entire FA disciplinary system is arbitrary, out-dated and fundamentally unfair. For a swat at a minor irritant - or 'violent conduct' as the charge sheet has it - Aliadiere has now ended up serving a longer ban than Matty Taylor who practically severed Eduardo's ankle.
Worst, the fact that almost every action on a pitch is now visible to millions of viewers, presumably including the FA big wigs who later sit in judgment on disciplinary panels, there is a public perception that far, far greater crimes are routinely going unpunished through a combination of visually impaired referees and spineless suits who have refused to tackle the issue head on. They are bringing the game into disrepute.
You can see why Boro are angry. Everyone saw what happened. If the ref didn't then they must ask themselves why. And if he didn't see the entire incident it must undermine his contention that Aliadiere was the culprit and his competence to weigh up exactly what happened. And if the ref did see it - and the suggestion is that he did otherwise the panel could take retrospective action - then surely the key question is why he took no action against the Liverpool man. It is the glaring inconsistencies and inequitable treatment of players in this manner that lead to accusations of big club bias, of incompetence and of a complete institutional failure. And it is the frustrations of being on the wrong end of a pseudo-legal lottery that has left Boro fuming.
Gibbo in full-flow is a joy to behold, not just on this issue but on questions of players workloads and wages, devious agents and the inherent big club bias in football politics strikes chords with frustrated fans well beyond the TS postcodes in which he is revered. Whatever reservations you may have about the positions he takes - and it easy to see both the appeal and the subsequent tabloid balsts as unwise - his righteous anger, searing honsety and obvious contempt for legal and diplomatic niceties screams a principled Park End populism that is refreshing and sometimes shocking in football's world of self-serving double-speak, institutional hypocrisy and arcane and opaque structures.
Here's what he spat out when asked about the rejection Aliadiere's appeal and the imposition of an extra match ban in punishment for the impertinence of daring to question the existing, rigid one-size-fits-all schedule of sanctions.
"It's a ridiculous decision to call it frivolous and I'm absolutely furious. Most observers of our game thought it was very harsh when Jeremie was sent off and I certainly can't see how one player was more guilty than the other. To be sent off for violent conduct suggests the prospect of someone being seriously hurt and that clearly wasn't the case. On that basis we appealed.
"We thought a more experienced referee would have only given both players a talking to. To punish the club further simply because the disciplinary panel says our appeal was frivolous is absolutely subjective.
"We have amateurs in charge of the professional game. When you look at some of the bad tackles that have been punished far less it's completely ludicrous. This is a professional game and we need professional people making professional decisions not these silly little men'"
Keith Lamb has also weighed in to the debate and had launched a series of attacks across every available media outlet, bringing in other examples of similar appeals and concentrating his fire on the concept that the appeal was "frivolous", a decision that is a direct criticism of himself and the club officials who chose to use the FA's quasi-judicial structure in the expectation of getting a result. Lamb said:
"Who are they to know our minds when we made this appeal? We are appalled at the decision and the entire process. How can nameless, faceless people on a commission decide that our genuine claim for equality and justice be dealt with in such a flippant manner?
"It is a disgraceful comment to suggest our claim was frivolous. We agonized over it before deciding to submit a claim for 'wrongful dismissal'. It seems strange that only recently Chelsea's appeal against Michael Essien's three-match ban was rejected but not considered 'frivolous'. It appears that there is one rule for the big boys and another for the rest of us.
"The whole thing is grossly unfair. If anything in this whole farcical affair was frivolous it was the original incident. Finally, the sporting ethos is that everything should be fair and equitable. How on earth can Jeremie Aliadiere think he has been treated fairly in this whole charade when the outcome is clearly a travesty of justice?"
Boro must now face a political backlash. Not immediately maybe, and almost certainly not publicly, but there will be a pay-back for this. If there is one thing the suits at Soho Square can not tolerate it is bringing the whole inequitable and anachronistic basis of their structures and the autocratic and opaque nature of their decisions into the spotlight.
The fall-out from the whole "three points" is not forgotten at our end - Gibbo picks at that scab often enough to suspect that the wound still gives pain and fans are quick to brandish the scar like a streetfighter displying his scars as a badge of honour - and it is fair to assume that it is not forgotten at that end either: the puffed-up provincial power-brokers were not happy that their authority was challenged and less still that Boro were ready to put their objections on a legal basis and expose the entire structure to outside scrutinty. They are all still there in senior positions so to rattle the cages again could yet have reverberations.
But Gibson is a shrewd operator and has the political nouse to turn that perception of bias and friction to Boro's short-term advantage. In reacting passionately and with an indignation that short-circuits any calculating assessment of the realities of the rule book the chairman is emotionally in tune with the vast majority Riverside faithful. Supporters will identify and empathise with his response and with just a little bit of fine-tuning that passion can be used to galvanise the crowd with a sense of injustice and a belief that in the oft-outlined battle between
David and Goliath we are the goodies. We have God on our side.
Just as the 'three points' engendered a seige mentality and forged a strong unity that pushed Boro to Wembley, so can this. A brooding sense of injustice can fire the Boro crowd up for the rest of the season, leave it seething and looking to vent frustration. It could make for an electric atmosphere tonight. Bring it on....
- Post to:
del.icio.us
Digg
Newsvine
Nowpublic
Reddit
« Previous | Home | Next »