FA Watch

[moonbeams]

If the FA are charging Ade with time wasting, they don't say that in their official statement. It seems pretty clear that it is for inciting the crowd from the wording. Why else would the police write to the fA with their views on the incident? Surely it's not illegal to waste time now.

FA statement regarding Emmanuel Adebayor.
The Football Association today issued two charges against Manchester City’s Emmanuel Adebayor following Saturday’s Premier League fixture between Manchester City and Arsenal.

Under the fast-track disciplinary process, Adebayor has been charged with violent conduct following an incident with Robin van Persie, which resulted in the Arsenal player receiving facial injuries.

Referee Mark Clattenburg has advised The FA that he did not see this incident, but has confirmed that had he done so, he would have sent Adebayor off for violent conduct. The player has until 6pm on Wednesday evening to respond to the charge.

Adebayor has also been charged with improper conduct following his actions when turning and running the full length of the pitch to celebrate in front of the Arsenal supporters after scoring.

The Greater Manchester Police have written to The FA with their views on this incident. A separate date will now be arranged for a commission to consider Adebayor’s goal celebration.

We have also asked the GMP and the clubs to identify those supporters involved in any violent and aggravating behaviour. The FA would like to see anyone found guilty of such behaviour face action through the legal system and banning orders from football.

The FA would like to thank the Manchester City FC stewards for the way they managed a very difficult situation and to pass on sincere best wishes to the steward who was injured during the game.

We will continue to work with the LMA and PFA in particular to help remind players of their responsibilities, especially in highly charged situations.

 

[Dyed Petya]

Sooooo unless running,sliding on you knees with your arms wide apart and a smile on your face is provocative even though ''it is permisable for a player to demonstrate a goal'' and we see the same actions week in and week out, Ade should not even be charged.

To be honest, I don't think there's any doubt that his celebration was provocative and I don't have a problem with him being charged for it, although given that Neville wasn't charged for his antics at the weekend, there's a degree of inconsistency in the application of the rules. (For what it's worth, I also think Bellamy is lucky not to be facing a charge after Sunday).

Where we will have a legitimate complaint, in my opinion, is if Ade receives a ban. Given the way the Gary Neville case was dealt with in 2006, the precedent is set for a fine and a warning in my opinion.

 

[moomba]

If the FA are charging Ade with time wasting, they don't say that in their official statement. It seems pretty clear that it is for inciting the crowd from the wording. Why else would the police write to the fA with their views on the incident? Surely it's not illegal to waste time now.

The FA haven't charged him for time wasting, I think it's one of those loose charges like improper conduct or something like that.

Where the problem lies, is that if Clattenbaurg had already booked Adebayor for improper conduct, then the FA couldn't take any further action.

By saying that he was actually booked for time wasting (30 seconds after the goal) Clattenburg is allowing a further charge to be laid (for a "different offence"), but is exposing himself as a liar at the same time.

 

[Mikeegrini]

If the FA are charging Ade with time wasting, they don't say that in their official statement. It seems pretty clear that it is for inciting the crowd from the wording. Why else would the police write to the fA with their views on the incident? Surely it's not illegal to waste time now.

FA statement regarding Emmanuel Adebayor.
The Football Association today issued two charges against Manchester City’s Emmanuel Adebayor following Saturday’s Premier League fixture between Manchester City and Arsenal.

Under the fast-track disciplinary process, Adebayor has been charged with violent conduct following an incident with Robin van Persie, which resulted in the Arsenal player receiving facial injuries.

Referee Mark Clattenburg has advised The FA that he did not see this incident, but has confirmed that had he done so, he would have sent Adebayor off for violent conduct. The player has until 6pm on Wednesday evening to respond to the charge.

Adebayor has also been charged with improper conduct following his actions when turning and running the full length of the pitch to celebrate in front of the Arsenal supporters after scoring.

The Greater Manchester Police have written to The FA with their views on this incident. A separate date will now be arranged for a commission to consider Adebayor’s goal celebration.

We have also asked the GMP and the clubs to identify those supporters involved in any violent and aggravating behaviour. The FA would like to see anyone found guilty of such behaviour face action through the legal system and banning orders from football.

The FA would like to thank the Manchester City FC stewards for the way they managed a very difficult situation and to pass on sincere best wishes to the steward who was injured during the game.

We will continue to work with the LMA and PFA in particular to help remind players of their responsibilities, especially in highly charged situations.

You are spot on Moonbeam Improper Conduct......from the rules of the association.

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.thefa.com/TheFA/~/media/Files/PDF/TheFA/RulesoftheAssociation0809.ashx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.thefa.com/TheFA/~/media/File ... n0809.ashx</a>

Rules for conduct start at page 107

General Behaviour
3 (1) A Participant shall at all times act in the best interests of the game and shall not act in
any manner which is improper or brings the game into disrepute or use any one, or a
combination of, violent conduct, serious foul play, threatening, abusive, indecent or
insulting words or behaviour

If you take the time to read them the rules on conduct basically cover every and any infringement they want to match to their agenda. I have yet to find anything that says once the ref has made a decision that can't be changed. But all they do is as they have done with Ade and give the second charge a different name.

 

[Mikeegrini]

Sooooo unless running,sliding on you knees with your arms wide apart and a smile on your face is provocative even though ''it is permisable for a player to demonstrate a goal'' and we see the same actions week in and week out, Ade should not even be charged.

To be honest, I don't think there's any doubt that his celebration was provocative and I don't have a problem with him being charged for it, although given that Neville wasn't charged for his antics at the weekend, there's a degree of inconsistency in the application of the rules. (For what it's worth, I also think Bellamy is lucky not to be facing a charge after Sunday).

Where we will have a legitimate complaint, in my opinion, is if Ade receives a ban. Given the way the Gary Neville case was dealt with in 2006, the precedent is set for a fine and a warning in my opinion.

I take the above back DP I was at the time more focused on the time wasting aspect and I think that what has happened at the swamp has sat the precedent for this season with regard to conduct also. Though I still cant see two separate charges if the ref disciplined him with the yellow card then what are the FA doing with this second charge.How many offences did he make in 90 mins ffs

 

[City Raider]

If the FA are charging Ade with time wasting, they don't say that in their official statement. It seems pretty clear that it is for inciting the crowd from the wording. Why else would the police write to the fA with their views on the incident? Surely it's not illegal to waste time now.

The FA haven't charged him for time wasting, I think it's one of those loose charges like improper conduct or something like that.

Where the problem lies, is that if Clattenbaurg had already booked Adebayor for improper conduct, then the FA couldn't take any further action.

By saying that he was actually booked for time wasting (30 seconds after the goal) Clattenburg is allowing a further charge to be laid (for a "different offence"), but is exposing himself as a liar at the same time.

This cuts straight to the chase of the main problem with the FA and what FA Watch should be about. There is no transparency with referee's reporting. The system seems deliberately setup to allow the FA/Ref's to arrive at a contrived outcome days after the event.

We need relevant incidents of the ref's report to be made public almost immediately - imo, will never happen.

 

[Chris in London]

No action against Neville leaves the FA in a pretty tight spot if they go and find Ade guilty.

Basically the main difference between the 2 offences was the fans reaction - eg Arsenal tearing our place up. So if they find Ade guilty they are effectively saying it's only misconduct when the fans react. Take that rule to it's logical conclusion, fans hold the power - very, very dodgy...

Spot on.

Van Persie gobs off at us, we don't react, nothing happens.
Neville gobs off at us, we don't react, nothing happens.
Adebayor winds the Gooners up, they go mental, Ade gets a ban.

What conclusion is your average fan going to draw from that?

 

[hello]

There isn't any doubt that his celebration was provocative and the yellow card was fully deserved in my opinion. However I have no doubt whatsoever that at the time he was being booked it was for his conduct during his celebration. The subsequent changing of the story by Clattenberg if confirmed sits very uncomfortably. The FA want to make the additional charge because of the way the Arsenal fan's reacted and are severly bending rules and forcing the ref to lie in the process.
The time taken from the ball hitting the back of the net to being summond for the booking was 30 seconds and is more than resonable.

The delay in the match ending and the match reports submission to the FA 2/3 days later is the problem with these situations and cause imparity in the way incidents are delt with as the ref's are subject to media (and probably FA) pressure before they submit the report.

Personally I would like all 4 officals from the game to be shown directly to the media centre where they watch the match again with no outside influence and note anything that there missed at the time/ unsighted etc. They then submitt the match report with confirmation of bookings and what they were for, and then they can go home. I dont care if this means they have to work an extra 2-3 hours on match day, they get well paid for it and any mistakes made are accountable and ultimately poor performances sees them dropped down the leagues.

 

[Dyed Petya]

The FA haven't charged him for time wasting, I think it's one of those loose charges like improper conduct or something like that.

Where the problem lies, is that if Clattenbaurg had already booked Adebayor for improper conduct, then the FA couldn't take any further action.

By saying that he was actually booked for time wasting (30 seconds after the goal) Clattenburg is allowing a further charge to be laid (for a "different offence"), but is exposing himself as a liar at the same time.

This cuts straight to the chase of the main problem with the FA and what FA Watch should be about. There is no transparency with referee's reporting. The system seems deliberately setup to allow the FA/Ref's to arrive at a contrived outcome days after the event.

We need relevant incidents of the ref's report to be made public almost immediately - imo, will never happen.

Fully agree. Looking at it from their point of view, there are incidents which they want to deal with but which they officially can't when the ref has seen them, and the mandate not to go against the ref's original decision comes from FIFA. So we get these ludicrous fictions where they pretend that Clattenburg didn't see Adebayor's so-called stamp and where he claims to have booked Ade for time wasting.

The problem when this kind of thing happens is that it's almost always in response to a media furore, and there are comparable incidents which aren't dealt with because the referee has already seen them. And justice selectively applied is inevitably not justice at all!

 

[Chippy_boy]

We are going into FAR too much detail and thought regards Adebayor and the rags match. That's ok on here - that's partly what Bluemoon is for.

However the whole premise for FA Watch is that these unfairnesses happen all the time, week-in, week-out. If that was not the case, we wouldn't have any need for an initiative in the first place.

So we don't need to dwell on any particular one of them. It makes us look partisan, not objective and it really weakens the power of the argument.

imho FA Watch needs to be careful not to fall into this trap. It needs to be much more crisp. Factually recording evidence, demonstrating inconsistency and asking for clarity. The power of the message is lost if we get into endless debate about nuances of every incident.

e.g. "In match X dated <>, player A kicked player B and went unpunished. Why is no retrospective ban being applied?"

next

As the list of factual incidents grow, and the FA produce piss-poor excuse after piss-poor excuse, their postion will become more and more ridiculous and pressure on them will grow and grow. Let's not get buried in the weeds.