Two match ban for swearing!

[Castiel]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/12950670.stm

Wayne Rooney faces a two-match ban from the Football Association for using offensive language during Manchester United's 4-2 win at West Ham.

The United striker swore into a pitchside camera after completing his hat-trick at Upton Park.

The England international has until 1800 BST on Tuesday to launch an appeal against the FA charge.

If he accepts it, he will receive a two-match ban - if he denies the charge a hearing will take place on Wednesday.

I didn't even notice he swore, but a two match ban for over-excitement?

Bit excessive in my opinion. They should have fined him, has anyone else been banned for swearing, I understood it is usually a fine?

EDIT: What do people think of discipline and control in the Premiership in general, are the rules fairly applied?

Does the FA apply the rules fairly across Clubs and Players, or are they partisan toward certain people?

 

[Castiel]

Why not a thread, no reason to limit it just to Rooney's ban, but discipline in Football in general.

 

[Castiel]

Well the thread title and first post indicate you want the discussion to be about Rooney's incident. I was just saying it was already been discussed.
If you want to talk about discipline in football in general then i think it would be better if the title and first post said this.

That's the thing about discussion, it is rarely limited to a single illustrative incident, anyway I have edited the OP, and maybe a Don can alter the Title.

So what do you think about the incident and how it relates to football discipline on the field and the FA's application of the rules across a range of Clubs and Players?

 

[Castiel]

If we are going to be punishing Players for every small infraction then should not the teams also be held responsible for the actions and profanity from their fans?

Some of the things you see fans shouting on camera are far worse than Rooney over-reacting.

I understand that Players are professionals etc...but if there is clear evidence (including TV coverage) of a fan being abusive, ban him from the ground for x amount of time or something similar.

 

[Castiel]

There is no respect for the ref IMO. Rugby is an excellent example of how it can be done well.

Rugby Referees don't make so many obviously biased decisions either.

Respect should be earned, not enforced by legislation.

 

[Castiel]

right decision. rooney needs a bit of therapy or something, first elbowing someone for no reason (which surely has only helped to make this decision easier for the FA) and now acting like this. he didn't look like a man who was excited, he looked like a man who was thoroughly angry and decided to swear blatently down the camera at (what?) 13:45 on a saturday afternoon in a match broadcast in nearly 250 countries? 99% of other players who had just got their team back into such an important game would have been smiling and happy, rooney looked like he'd just been turfed out of a brothel.

250 countries?

Do they have PPV on Mars?

Rooney is no different from many players, he is young, intense, competitive and sometimes the aggression inherent in successful sportmen spills over.

It doesn't mean he needs therapy, or that he is any different from any other young sportsman, he just needs to mature and learn to harness that aggression better on the field.

There are worse players than Rooney in the premiership, John Terry, Joey Barton, and Didier Drogba to name a few all who should be older and wiser.

 

[Castiel]

he isn't that young and he is extremely competitive, that's obvious. john terry isn't worse as a player but he is a dispicable human being, drogba is acutally a far more decent player on the pitch these days, barton's just still barton i guess

Rooney is only 25, that is young.

Drogba, well behaved??? It was only last year that he stamped on Thiago Motta.

The point is that Rooney is not some half-crazed psycho like you make him out to be, in fact as was pointed out by another poster, Tennis players swear on court as a matter of course.

A two match ban is excessive and you have to ask yourself, is he being made an example of, and if so, is that fair to the player and the club.

 

[Castiel]

he's been a pro since 16/17 hasn't he? i suppose 25 is young but when you've been a pro for that long, i can't understand why he's acting like he is now rather than his late teens, early 20's plus the fact he's now a father. players swear on the pitch all the time as do other sportsman though, not straight down the camera when they've just turned things around for a positive though.

Whether he has been doing a job for x amount of years doesn't affect his temperament in a pressure cooker environment, neither does being a father.

When you are young, hot headed and subjected to the abuse from fans that he is, then he will 'lose' it on occasion, anyone will.

I was a hothead at 25, I'm not now and I was in a high stress, results based environment from a similar age to Rooney. He'll calm down as he gets older and wiser.

I can't see him being like Drogba for example, who is just a nasty human being.

Whether he swears at the camera or on the pitch shouldn't make any difference, if profanity is prohibited during a match then the rule shoukd be applied equally, otherwise he is being singled out for who he is and not the offence.

That is unfair and wrong.

 

[Castiel]

Even if partially accurate, I don't think that has anything to do with respect. These people you mention only have no respect because they can get away with it.

Not true, they obviously do not get away with it all the time.

When there is no recourse for complaint that doesn't inspire mutual respect, especially when Referees are immune to criticism from Managers and Players alike.

 

[Castiel]

Drogba was swearing directly at the referee and had to be restrained from attacking him.

Completely different.

Quite.

And actually illustrates the disproportionate nature of Rooney's suspension in light of Drogba's attack on a match official.

 

[Castiel]

They are very similar incidents, I can see his point.

That is hardly the same as Rooney, Rooney didn't chase the Ref around the field or need to be restrained by his own team.

 

[Castiel]

Well said Danny, agree completely.

We need to get these role models setting an example for youngsters on the field.

You might want to start with their Parents in the Stands. Some of the language and behaviour at matches is far worse than anything on the field.

 

[Castiel]

Bingo sadly. It's not just on the pitch but off it.

How many rugby players make up headlines like Premiership footballers do?

Bar the bloodgate scandal a while back I can't think of anything except random appearances in tv shows.

What is the relative popularity of Rugby to Football, what is the relative media profile of Football Players to Rugby Players?

They are not so different, they are just treated differently by the media.

 

[Castiel]

I think Gimp was being sarcastic.

Yeah, I get that now.

 

[Castiel]

i wouldn't say the penalties are more severe and neither would i say that a football player wants to win anymore than a rugby player, footballers have and always will have less respect for referees. atleast rugby had the sense to bring tv replays into the game to make decisions they were unsure off.

That is hardly related to respect, but the responsibility of the Governing Bodies.

 

[Castiel]

Very differently, but can you not see why? They're loutish prats. When one is done another will be up to something fairly soon.

I don't think the media give football a higher profile because of the players, but because of the huge popularity of the game compared to Rugby.

Thus Rugby players enjoy a level of anonymity that Football players simply don't get. This skews our perception of the relative behaviour of the respective groups of players.

 

[Castiel]

It still gets reported though - Ben Foden attacked a taxi the other day iirc?

rugby is massive in other country's and can only assume that the level of respect at club level is the same as international elst it wouldn't be evident in tournaments. wasn't there a couple of stories about rugby players getting into trouble last week in seperate incidents? fighting in nightclubs or something?

Indeed, but the emphasis is not the same, neither is the profile level.

What would be considered news in regard to a Premiership Football player would just end up on the cutting floor if he was a Rugby player.

Would the stories above have been as noteworthy if not for the recent tournament. Football players in the same situation would have been front page news across pretty much every news media outlet for weeks, instead of a one day story, relegated to the sport page bylines the next day.

Rugby just doesn't have the profile or popularity of Football and that skews our perception of them.

 

[Castiel]

True true. Meh, gone a bit off topic this...

A bit?

I didn't start it...

 

[Castiel]

Next up:

Evra gets a 4 match ban just for being in the stadium.
Fabio get a ban for looking like Rafael.
Giggs gets a ban for playing left back.
VdS gets a ban for being old.

They better hurry up with VdS before he kicks it.....

 

[Castiel]

I'd say this is partially true, don't forget that footballers are paid a lot of money which in essence makes them a viable target. Much more so for the media than rugby players.

But I believe my point still stands. The high player/fan figures probably don't correlate with the number of incidents that are reported or happen. As said it's not just on the pitch their behaviour is better, it's off it as well.

The most crucial factor though has already been mentioned. It doesn't just apply to footballers though, life in general and they're no different. They're doing what they want because they can get away it. *shrugs*

I don't accept that they are comparable in any meaningful way.

It's the same as if you compared Rugby players to Lacrosse players and saying Rugby players are hooligans based on the amount of news items they illicit from the media.