Wayne Rooney may or may not deserve the two match ban handed down by the FA for his outburst to a Sky TV camera at West Ham on Saturday. That depends on a variety of biased opinions, but the point now has to be raised as to the responsibility Sky must equally carry for such incidents. It wasn’t the first and it won’t be the last because things are said and done in the heat of battle. It’s a situation which can very easily be avoided with a little bit of common sense.
Technology exists for live television to delay their coverage by a few seconds so that any unsavory incidents can be deleted. Talk back radio has been using a seven second delay button for years for that exact purpose. Sky has absolutely no reason for not doing the same in its live matches, indeed, they should be heavily fined for their neglect while the FA is just as guilty for not demanding it.
The only negative is that matches will run 7 or 10 seconds behind real time – big deal! Can anyone possibly complain about that unless they want to become super pedantic? It’s a simple solution which will avoid the lurid headlines that football can do without – and the tabloids love.
Granted, these incidents will never happen if players or anyone else behaved impeccably at all times but we’re not talking about robots here. Football is all about human passion which is an emotion that must never be removed from the game.
Will a ten second delay spoil watching a live game?
agree with your point but one problem: How would ‘live in-play betting’ work when it’s not actually live? Any delay would present an opportunity for taking advantage of this… (Though I would rather see the bookies suffer than football fans as a whole!)
Some mancs are just delusional. Rooney did not get punished for swearing. He got punished for swearing INTO A CAMERA, TWICE. I dont remember Chelsea fans going this mental when Drogba got a four game ban for his episode. You can swear all you want on the pitch, just dont be a complete moron and do it into a camera. Sky Sports does not factor into this at all, they did what they are supposed to do, provide live coverage of a game. Rooney is the only fool to blame. Stupid Scouse so-and-so.
No Karl, not delusional at all. Drogba directed his cursing at the referee, Rooney to a mere camera. Yes, Rooney was an ABSOLUTE moron to do what he did but I still maintain that Sky has got to carry a lot of the responsibility. After all, why does legislation exist for talk back radio to use a delay button but not television in order to shield its viewers from ‘morons’ like Rooney?
To add more fuel to the fire it’s been suggested that the cameraman actually asked Rooney to “Kiss” the camera.
And more fuel has to be thought that this is retrospective punishment which according to FIFA is wrong, unless the incident is included in the Ref’s report, which as far as I understand it wasn’t.
So basically what has happened is the FA have issued Rooney with a retrospective red card for his outburst, fair enough the laws of the game demand it.
But why isn’t the media in a furore over Didier Drogba beckoning a fan from the stands to back up his insults with actions, that was seen by millions but just laughed off.
Why wasn’t the FA in fully cry when Stevie G put two fingers up to a Ref’s face, another sending off offence.
Once again the FA are guilty by all counts of inconsistency.
If I were Wayne Rooney i would pick up the phone to Capello, retire from international football and withdraw from any of the FA’s promotional campaigns, after all they can’t have it both ways can they ?.
The FA seem at the moment to have two sets of rules.