Corruption in English football?

[Deleted member 77198]

Not even a talking to this 'challenge'.

THE most dangerous act in football by a fucking mile.

This is the equivalent of the banned spear tackle in rugby. This is the one kind of challenge in football that could end up with someone breaking their neck or worse, being paralysed.

Alex McKinnon was paralysed by this tackle in rugby and these shithouse football challenges where the player sweeps into the space of the jumping man is MORE dangerous in my eyes.



He’ll maybe never walk again.

These challenges should be an automatic red card and a 5-8 game ban in football. Harry Kane is the worst at it, he’s a proper dangerous **** him.

 

[Deleted member 77198]

It was a Kane special.

He absolutely knew what he was doing, he knew it was a dangerous challenge, he literally took a player out of the game, and the outcome could have been far worse than it was.

Yet Hooper didn’t even give a yellow.

I still maintain that was border line red.

There’s no borderline about it for me. It’s the worst act a footballer can do on the pitch. Far more dangerous than throwing a punch, an elbow, a head but or a two footed knee-high challenge. You can massively change someone’s life doing this sweeping them out of their space in mid-air.

 

[SebastianBlue]

There’s no borderline about it for me. It’s the worst act a footballer can do on the pitch. Far more dangerous than throwing a punch, an elbow, a head but or a two footed knee-high challenge. You can massively change someone’s life doing this sweeping them out of their space in mid-air.

I was furious last night when Hooper only called a simple foul, as I thought it was a borderline red and posted as much in the PL matches thread.

But seeing it again this morning, I think it is absolutely scandalous that it wasn’t a red card. Bednarek could have been seriously injured and Martinelli absolutely meant to do it.

Anyone saying Hooper wasn’t trying to aid Arsenal throughout the match is either blind, incredibly naive, or both.

 

[aguero93:20]

That’s a foul in American Football ffs.

It's a mandatory straight red in rugby.

 

[halfcenturyup]

I agree they will want a title chase down to the last day, if possible. And we have usually given them that.

But I think they very much want a new name from the traditional top six, as our continued dominance over the clubs that have more fans worldwide (both individually and most certainly collectively) has negative impacts over time.

The key nuance here is ‘continued dominance’ by us. Our dominance up until recently has had significant benefits. But we are now entering the realm of diminishing returns.

I have posted about this many times, so I won’t go in to a longer explanation, but the summary is that I don’t actually believe they are doing this because it is Manchester City and they hate us (even though a few brass in the league might). Their work to try to prevent us from continued dominance is a matter of what they believe is best for the long term growth of the league, with primary concerns for viewership, advertising, sponsorship, and licensing. Those are ultimately financial goals that heavily influence the leagues overall mission and, subsequently, their operations.

City winning a few titles, especially in hotly contested races with Liverpool or United, were a boon. City continuing to win the league nearly every year, regardless of whether another well-supported team keeps it close to the end, is not especially helpful to its longterm mission. It leads to growing disinterest amongst neutrals and, more concerning, falling engagement amongst the fair weather fans of the other top six clubs, which make up a fairly large portion of each clubs global fan base. That in turn eventually impacts viewership, advertising, sponsorship, and merchandising revenues. We are never going to be supported as well as the other ‘top six’ clubs combined, so degradation of their support has very real impacts on the league’s wellbeing.

I can say with 100% certainty—mostly because league executives have said it themselves—that the league do not want us winning the title every year (or even 5 out of 6 seasons). They want the top six clubs to win it in cycles (which now includes us), with the occasional Leicester City in the mix to give the appearance any half decent club could win it in any given season. That maximises viewership and engagement—and thus revenue—and supports the long term mission of growth.

From a league mission standpoint, they were happy with our initial success, especially the way we went about it (Aguerooooooo and the turn around against Liverpool were great narrative and entertainment). It helped the Premier League become even more dominant in the global football market.

But it’s gone too far now. It’s threatening the longterm health of their cash cow clubs. It’s making lucrative American owners/investors unhappy. We may eventually join that group of cash cow clubs ourselves, but we aren’t there yet, and the league has to do something before things get out of hand. Hence the charges, attempts behind the scenes to curtail our operations, and what I believe are attempts to aid Arsenal in winning the title.

I believe you and I agree they can only do so much without drawing far too much attention to themselves (it becoming blatant corruption to even City haters), which is why their efforts can usually be overcome with sheer will and cunning.

And we may be successful in that this season. But it doesn’t mean the playing field is fair (or that they are doing this because they “hate” us).

Most of this is just business.

Yep. I like your conclusion and I think we mostly agree. My view is still that the PL would LIKE different winners but they aren't going to do anything too crazy to ensure it. On the other hand, they DEFINITELY want close races and the best supported clubs up there, for which they frequently do things that are more obvious. It's clever really. All done in plain sight, in front of millions but in a way that has deniability written all over it with any decision having half the people watching tribally support it and half tribally against it. It seems you really can fool all the people all the time.

Anyway, enough. :)

 

[mattcity5]

I was furious last night when Hooper only called a simple foul, as I thought it was a borderline red and posted as much in the PL matches thread.

But seeing it again this morning, I think it is absolutely scandalous that it wasn’t a red card. Bednarek could have been seriously injured and Martinelli absolutely meant to do it.

Anyone saying Hooper wasn’t trying to aid Arsenal throughout the match is either blind, incredibly naive, or both.

The refereeing reminded me of our visit to Anfield this season - the ref gives nothing all game because they don't want to "spoil the game", but this just ends up with the home side fouling all the time and getting away with it. When the away team fouls, after a while the ref pulls them up because of the crowd getting on his back. It's cowardly refereeing at the very, very least.

 

[moomba]

I don’t think the goalies do themselves any favours by taking the piss over every goal kick. The ref went up and had a word with him earlyish in the second half and was presumably telling him he was going to add it all on. But he carried on. Probably end up getting more time added on than they waste.

That's fine I they do it consistently. But we've seen games like that at our place get an extra two/three minutes.

 

[halfcenturyup]

I was furious last night when Hooper only called a simple foul, as I thought it was a borderline red and posted as much in the PL matches thread.

But seeing it again this morning, I think it is absolutely scandalous that it wasn’t a red card. Bednarek could have been seriously injured and Martinelli absolutely meant to do it.

Anyone saying Hooper wasn’t trying to aid Arsenal throughout the match is either blind, incredibly naive, or both.

He even braces for the impact he knew he was going to cause. Should be looked at retro-actively. Change the referee's report if you have to. It wouldn't be the first time.

 

[threespires]

Kane gets away with at least one of these type of challenges every game.

The authorities will never call out their poster boy for being a cowardly snide but they don't have to. They simply need to give the referees a directive and tell the clubs that they have done so. Simultaneously, someone needs to have an off the record discussion with Kane who is the worst offender and exemplar to tell him the game is up. It's so habitual that he might struggle to stop and he doesn't strike me as the sharpest tool but if someone explains to him that when someone eventually gets badly hurt whether it was him or not then his name will be dragged through the mud and whatever legacy he thinks he's leaving will be tarnished irrevocably maybe it'll get through.

Won't hold my breath because until the football authorities are rinsed financially they won't take player welfare seriously. Too badly run to take preventative /proactive action about anything.

 

[halfcenturyup]

The authorities will never call out their poster boy for being a cowardly snide but they don't have to. They simply need to give the referees a directive and tell the clubs that they have done. Simultaneously, someone needs to have an off the record discussion with Kane who is the worst offender and exemplar to tell him the game is up. It's so habitual that he might struggle to stop and he doesn't strike me as the sharpest tool but if someone explains to him that when someone eventually gets badly hurt whether it was him or not then his name will be dragged through the mud and whatever legacy he thinks he's leaving will be tarnished irrevocably maybe it'll get through.

Won't hold my breath because until the football authorities are rinsed financially they won't take player welfare seriously. Too badly run to take preventative /proactive action about anything.

This is definitely something they should be legislating against, rather than wasting their time worrying about tragedy chanting, for Christ's sake.

Where is the PFA in all this?