The FA bottled it

The decision made jointly by the FA, Chelsea and Queen’s Park Rangers to scrap the pre-match handshakes was, in my opinion, rather pathetic. They did it to avoid the possible and probable scenario of Anton Ferdinand refusing to shake the hand of England and Chelsea captain John Terry, who has been accused of racially abusing Ferdinand. There was talk of Ferdinand being forced to shake Terry’s hand, which would have been equally wrong, but the FA have still managed to highlight the issue more than if it had been left alone. If Anton Ferdinand does not want to shake John Terry’s hand then that’s his right, but yet again the FA moved to protect their golden boy who it seems, no matter how much he actually does wrong, can do no wrong.

Ban the boos…

Watching and listening to the Liverpool versus Manchester United game was not the greatest experience. The football wasn’t brilliant, but that is not what I’m talking about. The boos for Patrice Evra from Liverpool fans, everytime he touched the ball were absolutely sickening. Worse was the vile excuse for a human seen portraying a monkey as way of abuse for Evra. I’m aware it wasn’t all Liverpool fans booing, but it was certainly enough for it to be audible via television and any at all is too many for a man whose only crime is being the victim of racial abuse. Yes, how dare he get racially abused. And how dare he complain about it. Liverpool fans, whether it’s the majority or minority, have disgraced themselves over the whole affair. Those booing Evra or calling him various names on Twitter and such like, are an embarrassment to the club and to football. Something needs to be done to stop repeats of it.

…And the rest

Manchester United fans are not perfect either, it should be added. While the boos were audible, there have been reports of chants about Hillsborough from sections of the United fans. If true, then this is at least as bad as booing Evra, and certainly as disgusting. Again, this should not be accepted, at football grounds or anywhere else for that matter. A precedent for the punishment of fans displaying this sort of behaviour needs to be set.

ITV are horrible

Their coverage of the FA Cup has, on the whole, been absolutely awful. No one is likely to forget the third round highlights package they put together, with adverts every other minute and not even a replay for a wonder goal scored by Newcastle United’s Hatem Ben Arfa. Clive Tyldesley is perhaps the single worst commentator across any sport, and likewise Adrian Chiles the worst host. What really annoyed me though was the way they completely ignored the behaviour of the fans in the Liverpool vs Man United game, with Chiles brushing it off by saying something along the lines of ‘there were a few things from the crowd, but let’s not focus on that.’ No one does football like ITV. If they did, I’d never get to see any.

Bad Romance

The FA Cup is still described as being the ‘greatest domestic cup competition in the world’. Nowadays it is simply trading on past glories. The magic was briefly displayed in the third round with the return of Paul Scholes and Thierry Henry. Now there is no magic or romance. For proof, look at the Saturday afternoon kick-offs. West Brom versus Norwich; Sheffield United versus Birmingham; Leicester City versus Swindon; Millwall versus Southampton; Bolton versus Derby County, Blackpool versus Sheffield United; Derby versus Stoke, Stevenage versus Notts County. The highlights of the round were League Two outfit Crawley Town beating Championship side Hull, Brighton knocking out Newcastle and a draw in the not-a-proper-derby between Sunderland and Middleborough. Hardly screams ‘best in the world’ does it? By comparison the Carling Cup, so long the laughing stock of cup competitions, had two Championship sides battling it out over two legs of a semi final which ended in a penalty shootout. It means a Championship side – Cardiff City – is guaranteed to be in the final at Wembley against Liverpool. Now, that’s romantic.

Photo courtesy of *BRIO*.