Bayern Munich has the Champs League final on May 22nd–and they are about to play it without Franck Ribery. Ribery was shown a red card right out of the ref’s pocket after a nasty tackle against Lyon.
Now, let me make something perfectly clear–you cannot actually get a red card for tackling someone–it’s impossible. In fact, the only way you COULD get a red card for tackling someone is if you do so with cleats up. So, as far as I’m aware he wasn’t going cleats up.
Now, Bayern is smart enough to know this and they are appealing the suspension–their statement is pretty smart:
“UEFA informed us of the decision, arguing that Franck Ribery was guilty [of serious foul play]. We do not understand this decision in any way and consider it absolutely wrong.”
“Franck Ribery can certainly not be accused of violating his opponent intentionally. The player Lisandro Lopez was able to continue the game. Bayern and Franck Ribery will not accept the decision, but appeal and exhaust all possibilities.”
They’re exactly right. Lopez was able to continue playing and the tackle wasn’t even THAT bad to begin with. I think the REAL problem is the fact that UEFA takes the same tact as players who flop without even being hit. We see it all the time and yet UEFA thinks that is ok because they’re not doing anything to stop it and suspending someone who made a play.
I suppose you could get really angry and say that UEFA is somehow trying to fix things for Inter and Jose Mourinho, but I don’t think that’s it–I think they really just have no idea. This is typical of sports leagues that are run by people who haven’t been on the field in a long time. They never make the right choices.
Sorry UEFA, you’re getting this one wrong.