Eduardo Dive Ban Rescinded

In what appears to be a fillip to divers everywhere, UEFA last night rescinded Eduardo’s two match ban. The ban, retrospectilvey meted out for his theatrics against Celtic, was seen as an attempt to crack down on the cheats – this turn of events will only serve to encourage them… Or will it?

The strangest thing about this whole shambles is that UEFA say Arsenal have proved there was contact – how on earth have they done that? And how much contact is enough for a player to go down? They simply cannot judge on that basis, it is far too arbitrary.

It seems UEFA have backed down in the wake of Arsenal’s protests – essentially that if Eduardo is retrospectively punished, so should anyone else who is subsequently proved to have cheated – any foul, back-chatting, snide little kicks, shirt pulling, crowd incitement (topical) and so on. That is just impossible to police, and would entail going through footage of EVERY game with a fine tooth-comb.

UEFA have obviosuly realised they cannot set such a dangerous and in reality impossible precedent. It may seem as if their decision is encouraging to divers, that by removing sanctions that have removed the fear factor that may nag at a striker and prevent him going down.

What I suspect we will actually see happen, now that UEFA cannot punish with hindsight, is a wide ranging and unequivocal instruction to referees to punish diving on the spot. UEFA know that if diving proliferates that game, it endangers its enduring popularity and directly their revenue.

They will not let diving become pervasive. And if they cannot stop it after the event, they will make sure the referees stop it during. This decision could be a blessing in disguise.

Unless of course they have let him off because of his injury, because there was the slightest touch on him… and hand out other retrospective bans in future. If that is the case, this decision is nothing short of retarded.