Three interesting stories have emerged recently about the organisations that govern football. Manchester United were fined £6300 because of violent and improper conduct by their fans in the Champions league game against Lille. Lille were fined £42000 for improper security and organisation. What really happened was that the section of the stadium alloted to United fans was only half opened. A fence was left closed so that the fans were squashed into an area half the safe size. Some fans climbed the fence to stop being squashed and were hit with batons by the police who thought a pitch invasion was occuring. UEFA don't seem to know what really happened that night and their information seems to have been provided by Lille football club, who felt bitter about the manner of their defeat that night. A fine for United seems bizarre.
My home team Rotherham got into financial difficulties last year and the FA punished them by deducting 10 points. The people who got the club into trouble have since left and the legacy is a struggling club doing its best to survive. The team have had a good season and were mid table at one point despite the ten point handicap. Things have since proved too much and the team has slowly sunk down the table. They now sit at the bottom of the table and look certain to be relegated. Why has the FA done this? With those 10 points Rotherham would survive the drop and would not suffer further hardship by being relegated. The fans and players are being punished for something the money men did in the backroom.
The other story was the plan by the FA to settle score draws in the league by a penalty shoot out. All commentators on the game have derided this ludicrous suggestion. A drawn game is often more exciting than a win. Small clubs would play negative against the big clubs to try and get to penalties. Silly FA.
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