While I never really had any hope that UEFA would be able to overcome their own inflated sense of importance, I felt it was worth a go and after all, there was nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Unfortunately, UEFA are one of those ludicrously pompous, monolithic and bureaucratic organisations that really – as my late night cartoon hero Peter Griffin might say – “grinds my gears”. They say one thing and do another:
It’s sport, it’s a game of football, it’s about human emotion and spirit. Yet they must stick to their rules come what may.
Their rules are sacrosanct and must never be broken and certainly no exceptions made under any circumstances, no matter how stupid the rules are or how foolish it makes them appear to the eyes of the world, Manchester United haters excepted, of course.
People are saying Fletch will be there next year. He’s unlikely to have another chance, I would say, such are the vagaries of injuries, form and competition for places. Scholesy did it after ten years, but Scholes is a one-off.
That the referee mistook Fletch for somebody else – somebody who “fouled” Fabregas, when clearly there was no foul – is neither here not there, according to UEFA.
The referee’s decision is final. The rules are the rules and the UEFA football law is an ass.