Liverpool forward faces possible grilling over 'joke' Twitter pic Liverpool forward Ryan Babel faces probable disciplinary action after reacting to the Merseyside club's predictable defeat at Old Trafford on Sunday by posting on his Twitter page a satirical mocked up picture of match ref Howard Webb in a Man United shirt. Webb, unpopular in Spain as well as the Red half of Merseyside for his …
the FA might be angered and you mustn't anger the FA.. the Franchise Association might lose money or look bad or something.. sorry, i don't speak football. not a language i'm fluent in. can someone tell me why this is news? or is it the first time a footballer has been party to an IT related subject and being a red top, El Reg just couldn't refuse...
... according to the current rules. But I wish we had our Hard Man's Game back instead of all this fussiness; there's a difference between a hard tackle and trying to break somebody's leg.
However, if that penalty was a penalty, so is 95% of everything that happens in the box - what was it the summariser said? "We'd be having 8-a-side penalties" and I would add, "so why bother with the game proper"?
I don't honestly think refs are biased in favour of Manchester United. But it sure looks like it at times.
It is for the FA to get its head out of its backside and tell players "Don't use social networks to mock officials". It's not rocket science. The pic deals with what a lot of people perceive - that Howard Webb isn't necessarily the best referee on the planet, especially where a certain team from Manchester are concerned. I'm no follower of the game yet I've heard plenty of people voice that opinion.
It is for the FA to manage this sensibly and for the FA and Webb himself to work to change those perceptions.
babel is a joke anyway. he is a sprinter who thinks he can play football.
anyone feel free to youtube gerrard diving to see some of his greater moments and torres too. funny how when they blatantly dive its ok, but if someone else goes down easily its SO UNFAIR (in harry enfield teenager voice)
i watch united every chance i get and see berba fouled in the box every game and hardly ever get a penalty. this is why we need goal-line tech. even the pundits said that it was a foul.
as a united supporter since about 1981 ive seen our ups and downs, seen plenty of dodgy decisions go against us (including stevie g and torres diving against us and 2 blatantly offside goals against us by chelsea winning them the title last year). i will admit we had a bit of luck on sunday though.
I hate our apology culture, and have far more time for people who when told to apologise go "no get stuffed." Than people who go "ooo I'm so sorry"
My old dear taught me "don't say sorry if you don't mean it" and "don't say something you don't mean"
Few things annoy me like fake apologies (and self serving apologies - say sorry or we'll take some of your money)
At the end of the day, Babel has given 110% and showed that he had passion and commitment...
Seriously though - he's done what a lot of managers do after the game when they think they've been harshly treated, and had a pop at the ref on a public forum. Managers (and sometimes players) do it on the telly while being interviewed immediately after, in newspaper interviews etc. etc.
In all these cases, if the FA think they've said something they shouldn't, they get fined. Fergie has been done for it, as has Holloway I believe, and Warnock used to get clobbered once a week for it! All that's happened is Babel has used a different medium to portray his thoughts. Why should he be exempt from punishment just because it's on a social networking site?
Hugh Dallas was sacked from his job as the Scottish Head of Referee Development for resending an email showing a road sign of an adult holding a child's hand, captioned "Caution: The Pope is coming".
Now in the bigotted west coast of Scotland where refereeing decisions are made and challenged on bigotted grounds this is a serious matter that the National Sectarian Society obviously don't understand.
As a Scottish athiest, raised protestant, Celtic supporter I have mixed feelings, but it puts your English tweeters in context.
If anything the Babel story is more akin to Celtic claiming the refs are biased and "the establishment" is against them. Except that in England Babel gets a grilling for it, while the SFA pretends not to hear whatever John Reid or Neil Lennon come up with.
..'wallowing in their victim status' again.
As a neutral I thought both decisions were spot on. All the scouse moaning at these decisions is due to their aversion to authority and the rule of law.
e.g moaning at the dole office when not getting invalidity benefit any more, moaning at the police for getting caught thieving, moaning at referees about penalties when their captain is one of the biggest cheats of all time, regularly filmed and proven diver
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