My mate sent this to Sky Sports

[Gwylan]

The problem, fundamentally, is that there's no will for things to change. They could quite easily bring in rugby levels of discipline if they wanted; hell, there are already rules bought in for swearing; why are they carried out to the letter of the law in the amateur game, but not the professional game?

That's it in a nutshell. If FIFA, UEFA, the FA etc wanted to stamp out this behaviour they could but there's no will there.

Only football has this problem: there's big money in cricket and rugby these days but there's no abuse of refs/umpires because the players know that they'd be in deep, deep trouble if they did. A club rugby player who behaved like Drogba or Ballack did would face a long ban - possibly as much as a season, possibly even life.The players know that there's no stomach for such action by the authorities so we can expect to see a lot more of this sort of thing.

 

[richmond]

Rugby has the answer

If you look at rugby union the referee is in charge at all times, is miked up and the players are told what the referee expects from them at any point during the game. As a consequence players are not allowed to abuse the ref, surround or jostle him. Approaching players in a dispute have to move away. If not they are sinn binned. Simple and it works, you just don't get the problems associated with football.

The FA and Football League are to blame in my opinion, they could and should stop this but are hand in glove with Sky and their money. Sky do not want to see top players being sent off as viewers are paying the Sky package to see them.

 

[Gritt23]

That's it in a nutshell. If FIFA, UEFA, the FA etc wanted to stamp out this behaviour they could but there's no will there.

Only football has this problem: there's big money in cricket and rugby these days but there's no abuse of refs/umpires because the players know that they'd be in deep, deep trouble if they did. A club rugby player who behaved like Drogba or Ballack did would face a long ban - possibly as much as a season, possibly even life.The players know that there's no stomach for such action by the authorities so we can expect to see a lot more of this sort of thing.

Exactly right. The NFL grosses 4 times the money the Premiership does, and has multi-millionaires playing a highly physical game, which builds to a knock-out finish. Even with their TV replays, mistakes happen, and the players show utmost respect to the officials, because the game doesn't stand for anything less.

The commissioner dishes out "indefinite bans" to players who they feel bring the game into a bad light. The likes of Joey Barton wouldn't never be allowed to play again.

 

[Biscuit]

LOST:
one baby's dummy, lost in the stamford bridge area on wednesday night around 10pm.
If found please return to Mrs D. Drogba

 

[Biscuit]

I have just been on my sat nav to try and find Chelsea.


Apparently its 2 mins from Rome.

 

[Biscuit]

Right or wrong?

youreon@skysports.com

I dont suppose for one moment you will feature this e mail but

Has it ever occurred to your commentators, pundits and editors that you are a major problem in the poor standards of referees. Your pundits and co commentators, most of which are ex pros and generally not the sharpest tools in the box, have spent their playing days whining at referees and now find that they can do it with the aid of slow motion and multi angle cameras and close up lenses. They will not say a word against the foul mouthed, spitting players who continually dive, feign injury and cheat at every opportunity but will spend the entire game criticising the referee for making a genuine mistake.... not trying to cheat... but a genuine mistake.

Tonight both yourselves and Chelsea hit new depths and drove more people away from football than ever, How you can ever say that the Chelsea players were justified in a display of bad sportmanship and total disrespect for the officials, beggars belief. They were a disgrace to English football and English society. Spoilt little brats that you continue to indulge.

What kind of person is going to persevere to be a top class official when he is yelled at by multi millionaires for 90 mins, screamed at by several thousand biased supporters whilst the whole time having every move analysed by modern day camera techniques and picked apart by ex players in a studio? Answer is......not a smart person

Excellent email.

Personally, I think it was out of order the way Michael ballack chased Jade Goody after she never awarded Chelsea a penalty in last night's game.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Don't forget that these players have got where they are today cos they are a breed that have had to fight, scrap and generally be nasty bastards to make it in the game and some of these players have just had the most important game of their lives ruined by a totally inept ref

Sorry, but footballers are no different in that respect to any professional sportsman. The only difference is that in other sports, the officials actually bother to clamp down on unsportsmanlike, insulting, aggressive or just downright rude behaviour, so you don't see it. It's nothing to do with rugby players' supposedly posher backgrounds, it's simply because they know that if they abuse the referee, they're likely to end up handicapping their own team.

We all feel hard done by at work sometimes, but we don't wind up abusing the boss or customers as a result.

If FIFA/UEFA actually backed up their pathetically weak claims to be tough on...well...anything at all...then officials would start to crack down on the first sign of dissent, and players would have to either learn to shut it, or get red cards.

 

[Stoo82]

Edna, why dont you leave the force and turn to politics, you always seem to talk sence to me.

 

[Marc]

did he get a reply yet?