Thursday, May 7, 2009

Red/Yellow menace

Most of you are aware that in the UEFA Champions league, if a player gets 2 yellow cards in the tournament, he is suspended for the next match.

A few years ago, this policy was tweaked a bit in favour of the player. i.e. If a player was on a yellow card at the end of the Group Phase, then the yellow card was scrapped and the players start afresh from the 2nd stage onwards. This was a postive initiative by the UEFA in my opinion. But I would suggest tweaking this policy a little further and scrap all yellow cards for a semi-final.

Nobody wants to miss a UEFA Champions League final(which may come once in a lifetime for a few players). Roy Keane and Paul Scholes for example, missed the 1999 UCL final and Roy Keane did not get another opportunity unlike Paul Scholes. And most recently, Dani Alves will be missing the final of the 2009 UCL final.

Everybody wants to see the best of the best play in the final. Suspending players for the final does not make for a fitting end to the greatest club competition in the world. And frankly, I don't see any positives for anyone in suspending players for the final for suffering 2 yellow cards.

P.S. A red card in the 2nd leg of a semi-final would be the next issue to tweak.

2 comments:

TT said...

tweeking with such rules would only lead to more players going with their studs up in the semis to get their team into the finals.

the same number of players from the opposite team would miss the precious final with injuries.

which one is fair??

Vivek aka Pisciotta said...

Hmmmm...fair point...

maybe just the yellow card rule then...i know its far beyond belief if someone changes the red card rule...