In our traditional English code of manners and etiquette, one of the worst things you can call anyone is a liar. It is banned in the Houses of Parliament for example. To get around it, Sir Winston Churchill once accused a fellow MP, who he thought was telling a lie, of a 'terminological inexactitute'.
Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger, showed no such restraint when accusing his counterpart at Tottenham Hotspur, Martin Jol, of lying. First to his face at a finger- waving confrontation on the touchline at their Premiership game at Highbury last weekend and later, in more sober mood on television. But then, he is French.
Incidentally, if you watched their altercation, you could not fail to be impressed by the fourth official, last year's FA Cup Final referee, Rob Styles. Totally impassive as ever, he interposed himself between the two warring managers and gently levered them apart
The initial cause of this unseemly behaviour was an incident that was humorous in a Keystone Cops sort of way. Spurs midfielder, Michael Carrick, had the ball near the halfway line, when two Arsenal players went to tackle him. Carrick danced out of their way with the ball at his feet and the two opponents collided with each other, both finishing in a heap on the ground. Carrick took the ball out to the wing where Martin Jol could be seen urging him forward.
It was this last action that raised the ire in
Arsène Wenger. He told Jol that he should have instead instructed his player to put the ball out of play so his players could receive attention. Jol responded that he had not seen the players on the ground, which was when Wenger called him a liar. That in itself is an irony.
Arsène Wenger is notorious for decrying referees when he feels an opponent has committed an offence without being punished but when one of his players is involved in a similar situation, his answer is always, 'I couldn't see it from the bench'.
What made it worse for Wenger on this occasion was that it led to the Tottenham goal. Carrick passed the ball down the wing to Edgar Davids who expertly crossed it for Robbie Keane to put it in the back of the net.
Wenger's contention was that there is an unwritten rule, in the spirit of the game, that if a player, team mate or opponent, is injured, the ball should be put out of play. Unwritten rule is might be but the written law says quite clearly , 'The referee allows play to continue until the ball is next out of play if the player, in his opinion, is only slightly injured'.
Steve Bennett, the referee, stopped, assessed and spoke to the two Arsenal players, so was obviously convinced that there was no serious injury. Why should he, or anyone else, then stop the game? The two players had themselves caused their situation. There was no suggestion of foul play by the Tottenham player, who by his skill had put his team in an attacking position. Why should they be denied this?Even if the two Arsenal players had picked themselves up and chased after him, they would have made no difference to the outcome.
I had a similar occurrence in extra time of a cup tie last season. An attacking player went down in his opponent's penalty area when the defending side cleared upfield. Having quickly judged the player not to be seriously injured, there was no head injury, I chased upfield where the opponents scored what was to be the winning goal. In law, both Steve Bennett and I were correct. Also, I believe that to have stopped either game, to deny what were fair and legitimate goal-scoring chances, would have been contrary to the spirit of the game. And that's the truth.
Dick Sawdon Smith
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© R Sawdon Smith 2006