Call the Cops - FIFA takes action
In a shock move today, Swiss Police have confirmed that they are planning to investigate the serious injuries that occurred at FIFA HQ when the whole of the disciplinary committee were hospitalised from moving too quickly having made considerable sanctions against Turkey following the "row" at the end of their World Cup Qualifying Play - Off match against Switzerland in November 2005.
The full list of punishments meted out today were:
Dealing with the players first, the bans for Alpay, Emre and Huggel are severe as they will deprive the Turks of their services for the next European Championship Qualifying Campaign. For Huggel, the sanction is more severe. He now misses the World Cup, unless by some fluke the Swiss make the Final. Ozdilek will no doubt make himself busy in the garden for the next 12 months before planning his return to management whilst Meyer will probably still accompany the Swiss squad in Germany although his Physio activities will be curtailed to off the pitch.
The six match ban for the National Team means that they will play all of the European Championship Qualifiers away from home, being no closer that 312 miles from the Turkish border and behind closed doors. The punishments certainly fit the crime and more, although the Swiss player, Grichting, who suffered a crude attempt at a vasectomy may take cold comfort from them.
All of which begs several questions:
The full list of punishments meted out today were:
Turkey to play six games behind closed doors in neutral venue at least 312 miles from Turkish border
Turkish Football Federation fined £90,000 plus £9,000 costs
Alpay gets six-game ban; £7,500 fine
Emre gets six-game ban; £7,500 fine
Serkan Balci gets two-game ban; £2,500 fine
Mehmet Ozdilek gets 12-month ban from football; £7,500 fine
Benjamin Huggel gets six-game ban; £7,500 fine
Stephan Meyer gets two-game ban; £3,000 fine
Dealing with the players first, the bans for Alpay, Emre and Huggel are severe as they will deprive the Turks of their services for the next European Championship Qualifying Campaign. For Huggel, the sanction is more severe. He now misses the World Cup, unless by some fluke the Swiss make the Final. Ozdilek will no doubt make himself busy in the garden for the next 12 months before planning his return to management whilst Meyer will probably still accompany the Swiss squad in Germany although his Physio activities will be curtailed to off the pitch.
The six match ban for the National Team means that they will play all of the European Championship Qualifiers away from home, being no closer that 312 miles from the Turkish border and behind closed doors. The punishments certainly fit the crime and more, although the Swiss player, Grichting, who suffered a crude attempt at a vasectomy may take cold comfort from them.
All of which begs several questions:
- If FIFA, probably the most incompetent Governing body in Sport, can deal effectively with incidents in the tunnel, why can the FA not do so?
- If this is a benchmark for punishments, will they have the balls to deal with the racism that is rife in certain continental European countries rather than letting UEFA hand out paltry fines that barely dent the Programme Revenues for away fans.
posted by Yogi's Warrior at 9:10 pm
2 Comments:
Moving too quickly was exactly what Sepp Blatter did by blasting Turkey the day after the match well before any disciplinary comittee had even met, let alone handed out punishments. That said, Turkey deserved to be punished but I'm not sure if it should have been by so much. You can check out my view at Turkey hit for six
I think that Turkey have been victims of the "cumulative effect". It is not the first time there have been incidents involving the national and their club sides but the fact that it was a high profile game with so much at stake made it doubly worse in FIFA's eyes. It isn't over yet as Turkey will no doubt appeal but serves as a warning to other nations that nothing will be allowed to spoil what could be Blatter's last World Cup at the helm of FIFA.
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