Thursday 7 April 2011

Were the FA right to fine Wayne Rooney and uphold his two match ban?

Of course they were, the man will never learn otherwise. It was a shocking and unnecessary display from a spoiled player. I’m not offended by his language, it was the attention seeking nature of the incident and it’s not the first time. As a youngster I was taken to football matches every weekend and at a young age I was exposed to the "industrial" language that comes as part of the football watching experience, rightly or wrongly. If parents allow their children to watch football then they must face the fact that bad language will be used.

So, if bad language is part of the game then should Rooney be let off the hook somewhat and have had his two match ban reduced to one as he appealed? Well, Rooney's outburst was pre-meditated in a way. If he had addressed the away section of the fans, or even the home fans and uttered the expletives which the camera microphones had picked up involuntarily then I would say that we have no problem. It would be put down as being an unfortunate error in which much of the questioning would be directed towards the broadcasters to broach the subject of having a time delay on the audio feed for live televised matches.

However, the expletives were not picked up accidently; they were very purposefully directed at the live audience. Instead, Rooney acknowledged the thousands of viewers watching the live feed, this acknowledgement indicates a disregard for authority and for football and the FA by bringing the sport into disrepute which is not allowed. Lest we forget that Rooney actively sought out the camera on another occasion too; during the 2010 World Cup after England had taken part in a drab draw against Algeria (?) when he directed comments towards the fans. Despite no blue language being used on that occasion it should have been an indication of his potential and readiness to offend and his manager should work on his player’s worrying attitude problem.

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