Drogba

[dell boy]

I like Drogba ... he is one of the funiest clowns I've ever seen.

Chelsea are going to get a big fine or maybe a ban for this.
Players are definitely going to get suspended and fined, Drogba and Ballack will be massive.
The referee will never official at another game outside of Norway, he was brilliant last night, very consistent.
The game was definitely fixed, police will investigate the irregular betting patterns, you could not get a price on a Barcelona equaliser with only minutes to go. How many minutes injury time did the ref find in the second half?
How long can I continue winding up the Chelsea Armchair supporters down the pub for? Weeks and weeks, every time they see a penalty given it will bring back memories.

[reeves4england]

The game was definitely fixed, police will investigate the irregular betting patterns, you could not get a price on a Barcelona equaliser with only minutes to go. How many minutes injury time did the ref find in the second half?

Although you've backed it up with some kind of justification, that's still a pretty huge claim to make

[Ralphy]

Drogba will get a big fine for that and rightly so.

Although the ref did make some wrong decisions, a professional footballer, a role model to millions of kids should not act like that.

I would imagine swearing on camera won't go down well with UEFA.

[santasdead]

The ref was consistant - consistantly wrong.

You can't complain about the amount of added time in the end of the second half because there was so much stoppage in the  added time that for the 4 min to be completed more time will be added on. (the goal took 1minute of celebrations, and players moaning probably caused another couple,along with the subs).

from the video,if theref has booked drogba, he should book him again for the same offence i reckon, you get booked you stop being a total idiot - if you carry on, then its a second yellow for me.

In the case of ballack (and possibly drogba) it turns into threatening behaviour, which, from what i remember, is a red card.

I hope chelsea get taken to the cleaners.

[wokinghamred]

Too be honest, regarding the penalties that werent given, its odd to have so many not go your way, but you could give a good argument against all of them. Even the "blatant handballs" could be argued that they were not deliberate. General rule of themb is if the players back is to the ball it cant be deliberate hand ball, and Pique's one, I think he had his arm out before the ball was kicked towards him. The one that Chelski got a free kick on the edge of the box was correct, initial foul was outside the box, and the other two shouts could also go either way. Drogba reputation for going down easier than a cheap hooker probably didnt help matters.

At the end of the Day, I can understand why Chelski are so angry, I would be if so many decisions went against my team, but if they went the other way, the defending team would be right to be pissed off.

I agree that all the handball decisions are open to interpretation - eg deliberate or not, ball to hand etc, and the one that Ballack got so upset about did not look a penalty to me.

But ....if the one outside the box was correct, why did the referree not blow when the initial foul happened?

I assume that he played on to see if Chelsea gained any advantage. They clearly did. He was hauled down, clearly in the box, and therefore earned the penalty. How did the referee give any advantage to Chelsea by taking it back outside the box?

Or was he waiting to see if any advantage accrued, as long as it wasn't a penalty?

Lets face it - the referee was a joke.

I

 

[jonny72]

I assume that he played on to see if Chelsea gained any advantage. They clearly did. He was hauled down, clearly in the box, and therefore earned the penalty. How did the referee give any advantage to Chelsea by taking it back outside the box?

I thought that was the one penalty decision the ref got right. Looked like he tried to play the advantage, when there wasn't one he blew and had to go back to the spot of the original foul and where it started which was outside the box.

The handballs were the blatant ones for me, even the second one as it hit his arm which was at head level.

[wokinghamred]

I thought that was the one penalty decision the ref got right. Looked like he tried to play the advantage, when there wasn't one he blew and had to go back to the spot of the original foul and where it started which was outside the box.

The handballs were the blatant ones for me, even the second one as it hit his arm which was at head level.

So your defensive strategy is make sure you foul them first outside the box but don't bring them down, and then if the ref plays advantage you can rugby tackle them in the box, because he will have to give the first foul?

[Summerof69]

I am not condoning Drogba's behaviour, the referee was shockingly poor, which makes any claim that he has 'been got at' a logical conclusion.

I wouldn't trust UEFA (and FIFA as well) as far as I could throw them. The referee did as much to help Barca, and by not giving the pens (he was determined not to give ANY Chelski penalty), keeping them in the match.It's interesting that a Norweigan official was given last nights match considering that a Norweigan lineman was supposed to be involved in the Barca/Arsenal final a few years back, but when the linesman was photographed wearing a Barca shirt UEFA (very) reluctantly withdrew him from the match.

[Rich Pullen]

considering that a Norweigan lineman was supposed to be involved in the Barca/Arsenal final a few years back, but when the linesman was photographed wearing a Barca shirt UEFA (very) reluctantly withdrew him from the match.

The local press wanted to cover the story but couldn't find an Arsenal shirt - so they did it with Barcelona only. Arsenal kicked up a fuss and he was relieved of his duties.

There's no conspiracy, let Chelsea fans enjoy the fact they have excuses for Drogba's inability to finish the game off.

[jonny72]

He might have made some bad mistakes, but the ref should get a medal for the way he handled the Chelsea players at the end of the game. He would have been well within his rights to give a few of them a few slaps.

Its a vicious circle with refs. The amount of abuse, pressure and provocation that they get in major matches (before, during and after) means that there is a pretty small number that can handle it without totally going to pieces. I'm sure this contributed to the ref making so many mistakes last night.

So we end up with lots of potentially good refs being forced out of the game or simply lacking the skill set to handle the high pressure games. If the refs didn't have to put up with all the shit they do and receive the respect they deserve their competency would improve dramatically.

Before anyone says the players wouldn't show them a lack of respect if they got the decisions rights, that argument is just complete bollocks. Refs make mistakes, its part of the game. Players showing dissent isn't part of the game, is against the rules and they should be given severe punishments for it.

Why can't we go the route of rugby? You never see that shit even in the top games and when a ref does make a bad decision. Rugby players are visibly scared of refs and show them nothing but respect.

[santasdead]

Why can't we go the route of rugby? You never see that shit even in the top games and when a ref does make a bad decision. Rugby players are visibly scared of refs and show them nothing but respect.

We have in england, with the respect campaign. The rest of your points are very good, time and time again refs make mistakes and they're careers are put in jeopardy (Poll for instance,even though that mistake was ingenious). refs can only go on what they see and believe is the correct decision. If last nights referee comes out and says he was wrong then fair play, but there is also a question of the assistants capabilities.

[herthab]

I was slightly pissed last night when I posted 'Who gives a fuck?' on this thread, just come back from winding chelski fans up in my local (Great fun).

The ref was poor, but he is only seeing incidents from one angle, once. We got to see all the dubious descisions over and over and over again, from a multitude of angles.

Barca won't be as shit as they were last night in the final and Chelsea deserved what they got.

As for Drogba, what a complete twat! (Very funny though)

[michael]

[url width=468 height=460]http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/05/06/article-0-04D5D082000005DC-615_468x460.jpg[/url]

Interesting that the referee is wearing trainers.

You'd never get an Italian ref doing that.

[Sippo]

they're moulds aren't they??

[Rich Pullen]

Tinpot. Lets bomb Norway.