How asinine is it that Gareth Barry is being charged by the FA due to chirping a match-day official? It’s ridiculous, and as a result my pint runneth 3/4 dry.
As outlined in Rule E3, he made abusive and/or insulting remarks towards an official. Why are the FA acting like this is so out of the ordinary? Why did they decide to inflict consequence on Barry, as much as I may dislike him (and I do – almost as much as his idiot teammate, Samir “Cashman” Nasri)? Are we to expect that this is actually being enforced and that the FA are taking a hard stance on “Your mama” jokes? Silliness.
Gareth Barry was playing in a highly competitive derby, one of the world’s most competitive and fiercely contested. The match itself was littered with controversy – Rio Ferdinand was hit by a flying Euro (a coin, not a player), United scored in extra time to win, and Joe Hart “MMA’d” some bloke who ran onto the pitch. The managers were livid, fans were more than that, and players were hot. The atmosphere was intense, obviously, so one has to consider the source in situations such as these.
Clearly the FA haven’t, as they dropped the ball on Barry who has until Thursday at 4pm GMT to respond. From what I gather, we are unclear as to what was uttered. We know that if found guilty he faces a one-match ban, but if he contests it and loses, it would be increased to two matches. That’s not so severe it seems, but I just question why give it in the first place? If the FA are to give one-match bans every time someone chirps an official who the hell would be left to actually play the matches?
Perhaps some of you are thinking I am being dramatic (God knows I do have that propensity), but the FA it seems don’t know if they are coming or going, and I look at this as a desperate way to punish a situation that seemed out of control. I believe they were flexing their diminutive muscles to have some semblance of control. And we all know how they like their control.
Follow me on Twitter – @PintRunnethDry
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