UEFA Champions League special: Real Madrid red cards - Case of bad ethics?
For starters, lets retell the story of Jose Mourinho and the yellow cards – well, second yellow cards in fact. Real Madrid travelled to Amsterdam Arena on Tuesday night for a UEFA Champions League group G game against Dutch Eredivisie
side AFC Ajax. Mourinho’s men ran riot – Ozil and Ronaldo being the stars of the show – and humiliated a talented Ajax outfit in their own backyard. Karim Benzema opened the scoring with a superb volley before an Arbeloa rocket and a Ronaldo brace sealed the
score line in favour of Los Galacticos.
Towards the end of the game, Madrid were awarded a free kick in their own half and Xabi Alonso line up to take it. The intelligent playmaker took almost 30 seconds to take the kick, prompting referee Craig Thomson to brandish the dreaded
second yellow card. Alonso left the pitch without much protest and many were left shocked with this uncharacteristic ‘stupidity’. The match progressed without much change as Madrid dominated even with 10 men on the pitch.
In the dying moments of the fixture, Los Merengues were awarded a free kick in the Madrid penalty box and surprisingly, Sergio Ramos stepped up to take the kick. Now, we all know Ramos is a world class player with impeccable technique
but Iker Casillas’ ball distribution is second to none. With score reading 4 – 0 in favour of Galacticos and Mourinho’s side already assured of top spot with a game yet to be played, there was no need for Ramos to be in the box. He should have been lazing
around the halfway line waiting for the final whistle after a good days’ work. Anyhow, Ramos line up for the kick and took an eternity deciding what to do with the ball. Luis Suarez, Ajax skipper, was left incensed only to see Mr. Thomson brandish yet another
yellow card, this time to Sergio Ramos. Ramos already had a booking and referee duly gave him his marching orders. What followed next was shock in purest form; Sergio Ramos calmly took off his hair band and shook hands with referee before walking off the pitch.
Television cameras showed Jose Mourinho furious with his players but was he really?
Both Xabi Alonso and Ramos, prior to their second yellow cards, were a single booking away from suspensions. With their time wasting tactics, they will now serve premature suspensions against Auxerre in a game that is nothing more than
a dead rubber. Jose Mourinho had played it perfectly, yet again.
There are two ways of interpreting this whole episode. Galactic fans will, no doubt, praise Mourinho’s brains for such shrewd approach. Ramos and Alonso are vital cogs in an all-conquering Mourinho machine and he could not risk losing
either of them in critical knock-out games. The two will take to the pitch in the round of 16 with a clean bill of cards, ready to tackle and foul for the greater cause. On the contrary, detractors will call it unethical and unsporting conduct. The tactics
applied by Mourinho synonymous with finding a bug in one of your console games and using it to your advantage. The issue is up for debate and in all probability, will never die down.
UEFA, following the incident, have declared that they will launch a full inquiry into the episode and might even slap extended suspension on the parties involved. However, the question is, do they really have the right to do so? Jose Mourinho
has done nothing more than exploit a gaping hole in UEFA laws of the competition. The governing body should have anticipated such actions when the rulebook was being drawn. Launching an inquiry into their own failures sounds absurd and if anything, they should
be taking responsibility for faulty rules and taking actions to fix them.
Tags: