So who'd have though it, there is someone out there who has less sense as a governing body than the English FA. With previous blogs demonstrating my frustration at the English FA over various matters, it comes as a slight shock to me that Uefa are also incredible stupid.
While they have flown under the radar in recent outcries against Sepp Blatter and FIFA's decision to award the next two World Cup competitions to Russia and Qatar, Uefa's inability to make decisions which make common sense have been highlighted by the Euro 2012 competition in Poland and the Ukraine.
Let's start from the very beginning, who on earth decided it would be a good idea to host a tournament in two of Europe's most dangerous countries to go and watch a football match? There is only possibly Italy, where there could have been more and serious violence. Furthermore, racism is a known problem in these countries and players have been subject to racial abuse playing for club or countries in these countries before.The book stops with whoever made this decision, get the host nation(s) right and you can minimise any trouble. It would also mean I wouldn't be able to write about what I am about to.
Racism has been prevalent throughout the tournament, starting before anyone has even played a competitive game when the Dutch team was subject to racial abuse while training. It hasn't gone away and it hasn't been a isolated incident either. Uefa are 'investigating' several issues of racial abuse will anything come of them investigations, probably not. At least if they are 'investigating' these incidents they will be doing it thoroughly (having taken so long) unlike our FA which jump to conclusions and go on the 'probably' nature of racism. Maybe a mixture of the Uefa approach and our FA's approach might be the future??
While they are deliberating over the racial issues, which have to have been expected given the countries which the games are being hosted in, they haven't wasted any time in fining the German FA for their fans throwing, and wait for it, paper planes onto the pitch during one of their games. Oooo-no the fans are throwing paper onto the pitch! What next? You'll be picking up fines for your fans singing too loud or something!!
Throw Nicklas Bendtner into the mix with his Paddy Power boxers on and you can tell Uefa are really losing the plot. Agreed, it was a blatant case of ambush marketing (where one company who isn't a sponsor of the Euros uses the competition to boost their brand) but was the £80,000 fine really in line with their previous sanctions? Especially considering the seriousness of the misdemeanors:
• October 2000 Patrick Vieira says Sinisa Mihajlovic called him a black bastard and a fucking black monkey, which Mihajlovic denies. The Serb also claimed that Vieira had started it by calling him a gypsy. Uefa's punishment? Two-match ban for Mihajlovic.
• June 2007 Serbian fans aim racist abuse at England's Nedum Onuoha at the Under-21 European Championship in Holland. Uefa's punishment? Serbian Football Federation is fined £16,500 for "the racist chanting of supporters and the improper conduct of their players".
• June 2008 Some Croatia fans are found guilty by Uefa of "displaying a racist banner and showing racist conduct" during a Euro 2008 quarter-final against Turkey. Uefa's punishment? The Croatian Football Federation is fined nearly £10,000.
• February 2012 Porto fans subject the Manchester City striker Mario Balotelli to prolonged racist abuse in the Europa League tie. Uefa's punishment? Porto are fined £16,700.
Don't forget the Russian FA was fined the exact same amount as Bendtner for their violence with Czech fans and the stadium staff at the very first game of this tournament. How can you justify fining him that much money with the above standards set by Uefa?! It's mystifying! If that wasn't enough, Bendtner will miss a game for his troubles.
I can understand, to a degree, fining him, as you have to keep the integrity of the tournament's sponsors but banning him for a game is just simply crazy!
One last thing to add to the wishy-washy approach by Uefa's disciplinary panel Manchester City were fined £24,740 for appearing for the 2nd half of a game 1-minute late...
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