First you had Rafa Benitez making up lies at a pre-match press conference, to deliberately unsettle a player with aspirations of going to the World Cup with England this summer.
Then atrocities in the game stooped to an even worse level when in front of a huge global audience Arsene Wenger threw his toys out the pram, and realising he could not win at football, tried to bully Martin Jol and then Edgar Davids. He knew that the third official or the police would come to his rescue if either of them laid a finger on him but in the heat of the moment that is what he probably deserved although I don't condone physical violence.
Ron Lewis, boxing writer for The Times today said: ‘Jol bears more than a passing resemblance to John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister. Like Prescott, the best way to attack Jol would be from distance — preferably about 20ft, behind a police cordon, armed with a placard complete with a protest about over development or the environment. But Wenger's short-sighted tendencies may force him into another close-up confrontation and, against the beefy Jol, he would be unlikely to come out the winner.'
The sport's governing bodies are under pressure because their powers within an increasingly business orientated faction. European football writer Gabrielle Marcotti recently argued that football's governing bodies ‘do not hold any kind of legal power over clubs, except for that power which the clubs voluntarily choose to grant them.' If this is indeed true, then surely instead of getting itself embroiled in political issues, the FA ought to stand up for the values of the football supporters and players, and teach Wenger and his club a lesson or two. Since clearly what he sees can sometimes not even be the same as that which his captain Thierry Henry sees. The game can not be allowed to face eventual ruin because of certain characters whose ideas about self importance has grown to an unhealthy proportions.
Last Friday UEFA Chief Executive Lars-Christer Olsson said: "It would be nice if the image of football could always be like the one portrayed at the UEFA Congress in Budapest. A united and supportive movement that shares the same values and is constantly seeking to improve and to live in harmony with FIFA and its fellow confederations."
"However, it has to be acknowledged that the unity expressed in Budapest was prompted above all by the dissident views of a number of renowned clubs that have grouped together to defend their own interests."
(Referring to G14) "Of course, there is nothing wrong with having different ideas and opinions; it is not a negative influence and can even contribute to progress, but differences of interest can be detrimental; egoism prevails when vision is blinkered, which leaves no room for solidarity or, at best, charity."
One Sunday tabloid this weekend reported that Olsson has already told the FA that they will not accept Arsenal vice chairman David Dein's nomination to sit on its committee because of his involvement with the G14 group. Dein has tried to rally support from the Premier League and the FA to fight UEFA's decision and has even offered to resign from the G14 working committee to save himself from being booted out by UEFA. "Unless Arsenal resign from G14 he is finished at UEFA," said a UEFA insider. (Sunday Mirror)
Disagreement in the Arsenal ranks
There's a good reason why Thierry Henry staying in England would be a positive step, not only for Arsenal. It's going to get a lot more boring if Arsene Wenger stays and Henry joins the Spanish league.
On the subject of the Gunners' Champions League semi final first leg at Highbury last week, Henry said: "I just looked at them all night when they went down and I didn't say anything. I said to some of our players, 'Don't even talk to them, just think about the game.'" (Sunday Mirror) Meanwhile, Wenger told the official Arsenal website: "That they looked happy with a 1-0 was what Thierry Henry saw. He called it negative but I don't really agree."
Negativity might work in business but it shouldn't be allowed to rule the football game.