Source: Daily_Mail
Eduardo's NOT a diver! Wenger's witch- hunt jibe as striker hit by cheat charge
Arsene Wenger accused UEFA of a witch-hunt after European football’s governing body charged striker Eduardo with deceiving the referee.
The Arsenal boss was livid that his player had been singled out as a cheat after allegedly diving to win a penalty in the Gunners’ 3-1 win over Celtic on Wednesday night.
Eduardo won and converted a spot-kick in the Champions League qualifying second leg, but replays showed Celtic keeper Artur Boruc made little contact with the Croatia forward.
‘It is a witch-hunt, not an objective judging of the case,’ said Wenger. ‘I find it a complete disgrace and non-acceptable. This charge implies Eduardo acted with intent and with a desire to cheat the referee. It singles out a player in Europe to be a cheat and that’s not acceptable.
‘If you take all the games in Europe every week, I will give you 10 cases where UEFA can charge a player. I see Maradona scoring with his hand against England in the World Cup and no one has charged him.’
Eduardo’s case will be heard by UEFA on Tuesday and, if found guilty, he could face a two-match suspension or a ban for ‘a specified period’.
Furious Wenger promised to defend his player to the hilt and blamed the striker’s reaction on the broken leg he suffered in February last year after a challenge by Birmingham defender Martin Taylor.
‘When you have seen his leg, I don’t blame him for getting out of the way of the keeper I tell you,’ he said. ‘I’m 100 per cent against diving, believe me. The penalty is not obvious, I accept that. In this case they don’t judge is it a penalty or not. They’re judging whether Eduardo is a cheat or not. That’s where I don’t agree.’
Wenger felt the 26-year-old was the victim of UEFA and the Scottish FA acting ‘emotionally’ amid intense media coverage.
‘It’s funny in football because when you can break the legs of players, it doesn’t make a debate for anybody, but this case has been treated all over the world like Eduardo has killed somebody,’ added Wenger. ‘There’s a complete lack of logic.’
The Frenchman also claimed UEFA have opened a ‘very dangerous door’ by using retrospective video evidence
‘Normally, a situation that has been assessed and judged by the referee cannot be touched again,’ he said.
‘They have opened a door that means every single decision made by a referee, seen by a referee, can be challenged from now on.’
Wenger also questioned the timing of the charge by UEFA in view of his side’s massive match today with the Barclays
FULL TRANSCRIPT OF WENGER'S AMAZING TIRADE
REPORTER: What's your reaction?
WENGER: "I find it a complete disgrace and non-acceptable and we will not accept the way UEFA treated this case, for two reasons.
"One, I believe that you can debate, was it a penalty or not? This charge implies that with intent and with a desire to cheat the referee, Eduardo did act.
"And, having seen again the pictures nothing is conclusive on that. And it singles out a player in Europe to be a cheat and that is not acceptable.
"And I believe that, first, of all, there's two things in this case, two different cases in this case, and UEFA has taken an action that is not defendable."
Do you accept Arsene, having said all of that, that they have to clamp down on perceived cheating. You understand they have a tough job deciphering what is and what isn't?
HAVE YOUR SAY...
Should Arsenal striker Eduardo face a UEFA ban for his outrageous dive against Celtic?
"Well, I did fight my whole life against cheating, and I have seen some obvious cases where UEFA didn't intervene.
"On and off the pitch things have happened in Europe where UEFA did not act at all, and I believe secondly, in this case, this situation is the first time since I'm in football that a situation has been judged, assessed by the referee, is not accepted by the football bodies - first time.
"Normally a situation that has been assessed and judged by the referee cannot be touched again.
"So they open a door here, that means every single decision made by a referee, seen by a referee, can from now on, be challenged. They open a very dangerous door there."
Why do you think they've intervened in this instance?
"You should ask them that question."
Are you disappointed the SFA got involved, because that seems to be...?
"I'm not disappointed, I think here, for me it is a witch-hunt, that we see, but not an objective judging of the case, that has happened in football.
"Eduardo has been touched by the goalkeeper and we can prove that. So there is one thing, is it a penalty or not? I'm the first to say it doesn't look obvious at all to be a penalty. But there is another thing, to judge, that with intent, he did go down. And that I wish you good luck to prove that having seen the pictures again.
"So, to single a player out like that, who comes back from injury, like he has been hit, like he has been, for going down, I don't blame him.
"When you have seen his leg, when he has been tackled first time, I don't blame him to get out of the way of the goalkeeper, I tell you."
Have you spoken to Eduardo, what did he say?
"He feels he has done nothing wrong and I believe he will focus on tomorrow's game because I don't even speak about the timing of that charge before a big game like that, you can understand that's certainly not ideal as well."
What will Arsenal be doing, can you challenge this decision?
"He has been charged, he has not been judged guilty, so we will defend our player."
Are you upset about the timing of this, given that it does come a day before a big game?
"Well, we have to deal with that, but of course you can agree with me that the timing is not ideal for us because...it's funny in football, you can break the legs..."
"It's funny in football because you can break the legs of players, it doesn't make a debate for anybody but this case has been treated all over the world like Eduardo has killed somebody. This penalty had no outcome on the result at all. Because we were 2-0 up, we would have won this game at home anyway.
"We have been victims of dives from some players in England, who were English, who were never treated like that so you have to answer a case as well, the medias and the press, to treat every case exactly the same.
"We will defend our player, it's as simple as that. We will take it as far as we can. Because it is not ... the man is not treated fairly and the existing rules of football have been changed just for that case. So we will, from now on, challenge every single decision, I tell you, that is made in Europe by the referees."
Why didn't Eduardo say to the referee, it wasn't a penalty?
"Ideally, he should have said to the referee. [But] maybe he thought it was a penalty, why not? He has been touched. You read well the rules of penalties and the referee who has given the penalty says I have seen the situation again, and I still think it was a penalty.
"He is a professional referee, he knows the rules. There doesn't need to be an intent from a goalkeeper to make the penalty."
Is it a case of the referees decision is no longer final?
"Yes. Of course, and this is dangerous in that any club, in any big game can challenge the decision of the referee because that's what this situation tells you."
How should we stamp out diving?
"We have to fight against diving and we have to fight against .... but the best way, as we said before, is to have video evidence when he makes this decision. What is this situation about?"
