You would think that Wayne Rooney would be a happy footballer. A weekly salary that most people would have to work five years to accumulate, a beautiful and clever wife, a house that’s worth a king’s ransom, a prodigious talent that has earned him a place with the country’s top club and continual selection in the national team. And yet on the field of play he seems to have become increasingly petulant not to say foul mouthed. Seething anger seems to be bubbling like a witches’ cauldron just below the surface and erupting at the slightest excuse.
I don’t suppose it needs me to tell anyone that his latest display of bad temper led to him being sent off, having received an earlier caution for pulling down an opponent in a fit of annoyance after loosing the ball. His dismissal left United with only nine players as Paul Scholes had previously been sent off for denying a goal by deliberate handball against a Fulham side they had no doubt expected to beat comfortably.
Many might think it was not before time that Rooney was
brought to book. I remember an excellent letter from a referee’s wife in Basingstoke some years ago, when Rooney was caught on television telling Graham Poll to f-off without being censured. She complained that it was her husband and his colleagues on the local parks who would suffer, as players would think this perfectly acceptable behaviour.
I almost felt sorry for the player I sent off shortly afterwards for giving me the same salutation.
Rooney’s dismissal on this occasion came about when referee Phil Dowd insisted on a free kick being taken from where the infringement occurred, as required in the Laws of the Game. Captain for the day, Ryan Giggs, took the free kick quickly, playing the ball to Rooney on the edge of the opponent’s penalty area but it was someway away from where Phil Dowd wanted it taken. Showing his frustration with the referee’s insistence that the kick be taken correctly, Rooney hurled the ball back to where he was standing, with such venom that it was evident to everyone that it was going to result in a second yellow card followed by a red.
There may be some who have sympathy with Rooney’s feelings if not his action. Referees often get aggro from players when they get insistent over the positioning of free kicks. And of course they are not always so pedantic. Take a free kick given to the defending side well inside their own half. If it is for offside then the assistant referee will probably be stood in line showing where the kick is to be taken, but for any other offence the referee will adopt what we call ‘give and go’. In other words having given the free kick he won’t hang around ensuring that the kick is taken from the exact spot, a few yards at that range won’t matter much. Instead he’ll make his way upfield to where the kick is likely to finish.
However, once you get over the halfway line the whole situation changes. Players have sometimes said to me, ‘what difference does four yards make,’ when I send them back. Those four yards are usually ten but the fact is that even four yards can make a difference when the kick is inside the opponents half; it makes it easier to place the ball inside the penalty area with greater accuracy. All referees know this and Premiership referees have been told to ensure these kick are taken correctly. It might annoy players but few go the lengths Rooney did to show his displeasure.
Perhaps Sir Alex Ferguson might consider sending Rooney on an anger management course, although that would be a little like John Terry advising Ashley Cole to stay away from night clubs.
Dick Sawdon Smith
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© R Sawdon Smith 2009