Players need real discipline.

I was watching some sports commentary show this morning (I’m not sure why, I think I was eating breakfast) and the topic of discussion turned to that A-League Goalie who received the ban for ‘man-handling’ the referee. Apparently his ‘ban’ will be put on hiatus, or be conveniently and temporally forgotten, for the period covering the Olympic games, then the ban will resume after the games are over.

The panel on this show really ripped into this decision and said that it was an insult to the A-league and to the Referee. I pretty much agreed: What a joke this is, if the sports community ever wants me to take them seriously (and obviously they do, come on) then they’re not going about it the right way.

Opinions?

That is ridiculous.

It's not reaaallly relevant, but if it's the ban I'm thinking of it was a stupid ban anyway. He was waving his arm around and it brushed the referee's wrist and he got some sort of 9-month ban. He should have been banned for one or two matches at most.

Still, if they've decided to ban him for the 9 months, except when convenient, that's pretty poor.

I'm surprised that an Australian domestic ban affects the Olympics anyway though...usually it wouldn't overlap.

Marc wrote:It's not reaaallly relevant, but if it's the ban I'm thinking of it was a stupid ban anyway. He was waving his arm around and it brushed the referee's wrist and he got some sort of 9-month ban. He should have been banned for one or two matches at most.

If that is the case then yeah I agree. I didn't really hear what exactly it was for, in fact, when I think back to the footage it did look pretty weak, not too serious at all.

Marc wrote:I'm surprised that an Australian domestic ban affects the Olympics anyway though...usually it wouldn't overlap.

Is that right? Interesting. I think that's kinda gay; isn't he going overseas to represent Australia?...

It's to do with how FIFA divides jurisdiction, is all.

If you get a red card in the Champions League you're free to play in domestic competitions.

Get a red card in the Premier League and you're banned from English domestic competitions like the FA Cup and League Cup but free to play in Europe.

None of those suspensions would affect an international tournament like the Olympics or Euro or the World Cup. To get banned from international competition you usually have to commit the offence in an international match (friendly or otherwise).