David Navarro’s punishment is just, but will FIFA agree?
The Valencia-Inter brawl has led to severe punishments for the parties involved.
David Navarro got a 7-month ban (from March 6th onwards, that amounts to a ban till October 6th/7th - at worst this will last till mid October). It keeps him out of this season’s Champions League but only prevents him from playing two group stage CL matches from next season.
UEFA have also asked FIFA to make the punishment extend to all forms of football, so that Navarro will be banned from domestic and international football as well.
Punishments
Valencia: David Navarro (7 months) and Carlos Marchena (4 games).
Inter Milan: Nicolas Burdisso (6 games), Maicon (6 games), Ivan Cordoba (3 games) and Julio Cruz (2 games).
Both clubs were also fined £106,000 each.
Valencia for their part want to appeal against the decisions, citing Navarro’s apology as good enough - which is similar to saying that you can go kick a fan and then say sorry and get away with it, or that you can break an opponent’s leg with a deliberate challenge and then get away with it.
Of course, this was a bit more extreme. Burdisso hadn’t injured Navarro before. Burdisso wasn’t hurling abuse at Navarro either. Burdisso was surrounded by security, Inter and Valencia players, had just been kicked, and Burdisso had to go around a whole gaggle of players, find Burdisso and punch him in the face.
An unused sub runs on the pitch and punches the opposition player in the face!
And Valencia want to appeal on a 7 month ban?
To be honest, the 7 month ban from European competition is light - but a blanket ban on domestic and international football will be more appropriate.
If Navarro was on the pitch and part of the argument, his actions would have been easier to sympathise with (rush of blood, etc). But he ran on the pitch, and then ran off like a coward!
Will FIFA agree? They are usually soft but in this case they’ll want to appear as defenders of football’s virginity, so they’ll probably concur.
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I totally agree with the bans. theyve no grounds for an appeal. they should hust accept it
*Off Topic*
How about throwing in the odd post on Cricket (I know it’s a soccer blog) Hell, even Guardian or Football365 throws in the odd cricket thingy, just for fun. And I think it’s blasphemy for a Pakistani or an Indian (like me) to not post about cricket.
Guardian is a sports site as well - they do cricket, football, rugby, racing, etc.
Send in a submission if you’re interested in writing about cricket - I was thinking of starting a cricket site but I don’t have the time to manage it properly.
The internet tells me this “cricket” of yours is like baseball? Neat!! Tell me more!!
Ok, here’s the deal
If I can find someone to write on cricket, I’ll fund the site costs, promote it and run it for them - all they’ll have to do is write on it.
Back in 1964 I had a footy website entirely devoted to cricket. Or maybe it was a cricket magazine featuring rugby articles. Articles written by rugby players and edited by the proverbial monkeys sitting at their proverbial typewriters. Proverbs, too. We had those in our magazine. Or was it merely a periodical? Whatever it was, I wrote (and read!) many an article on the topic of football. I just don’t remember what they were about.
My Old-Timer’s disease really gets the better of me sometimes.
Enough about cricket, the ban is pretty useless to be honest with you. 7 months might shock you when you read it at first, but considering the fact that valencia in all probability just play 2 more matches this season and then take a break for about 5 months and then group stages and another break, navarro really doesnt miss that much. And considering the fact that he isnt really a first team player, it only proves the ban useless. I think navarro should get 7 months from all football and personally get fined 106,000 pounds. If you get 9 months for forgetting to pee in a cup, surely running across the ground and punching someone in the face for no reasons demands a stricter punishment.