It probably doesn’t matter that Clint Dempsey’s now-famous daisy-cutter turned poor, hapless Robert Green into the best football punchline since Titus Bramble.

See, even in the wake of the U.S.’s 1-1 draw vs. England at the 2010 World Cup, one of the few solaces English fans probably still have is looking down their noses at the “Colonies” and sneering at the Yankee approach to the game. English fans in need of a pick-me-up can just dial up three letters — MLS — and console themselves.

For all their insecurities and self-doubt produced by the continued failures of the Three Lions at big tournaments, English fans will always have Americans to kick around. At least for the time being.

One easy way for Americans to get even with the English — cut them down to the core, in fact — is to call out their decades long quest toward producing the first major trophy for England since 1966.

The latest cure-all for England’s international woes is “youth development” as if this blanket term will lead England to soccer’s Holy Grail.

Since the turn-of-the-century a chorus in England has grown louder-and-louder that Premier League clubs need to start developing their own young players, as opposed to spending major money on foreign imports. The England FA has looked at models in Holland, Spain, France and around almost all of Europe — it’s got to be the system, not the players themselves. (Remember England fans either a) think the team should win every game it plays or b) think they’ll never win another game they play.)

It’s a noble intention that’s almost taken on a life of it’s own. Yet to think a foreigner-heavy Premier League and lack of youth development is the sole reason England has flopped on the International stage is beyond myopic. Remember Middlesbrough publicly committed to building through its academy and was eventually relegated in 2008-09.

Finally in May, under pressure from Michel Platini’s UEFA “home grown” campaign, Richard Scudamore and the rest of executives at the Premier League acquiesced and accepted some change was necessary.

Beginning with the 2010-11 Premier League season, clubs must have at least eight “home grown” players. In short, players under the age of 21 who’ve been registered with the club at least three years.

All-and-all, not a terrible idea.

Will it eventually increase the number of Englishmen in the Premier League? Probably.

Is this necessarily a good thing? Hard to say.

Will it ever lead England to Euro or World Cup glory? We’ll see.

What’s most interesting about this development isn’t the home grown portion of the rule. It’s that Premier League clubs are only allowed a squad of 25 players from the start of September, which cannot be changed until the January transfer window. Players under the age of 21 don’t count toward the cap.

Can’t you imagine that someone during the Premier League’s executive meeting — looking something like the fictitious Sterling-Cooper boardroom from “Mad Men” — just before the meeting adjourned and as everyone began to step away from the conference table someone sounding like Bert Cooper let slip, ” … and oh by the way, gentlemen, we’re setting the squad limit at 25.”

It’s hard to look at this any differently than a rider tacked on and attached under pages of other ideas. At the time the Premier League announced the “homegrown” amendment, the roster cap was certainly buried under the bigger news and forgotten.

Perhaps it’s true the only way clubs will actually be forced to play these home grown players was under a roster cap. It wouldn’t have been hard for the big teams like Chelsea, Liverpool, the Manchester duo, etc. to fill their quota of eight players, keep them with the reserves and continue doing business as usual.

That said, tying home grown players to roster caps seems doesn’t seem like the most well-thought out idea in the history of English soccer, which is saying something. Tying it to the noble intention of local level, youth development is one of those proverbial, “robbing Peter to pay Paul” scenarios.

The new found roster cap rule came to a head over the weekend when numerous stories were filed during Manchester City’s summer tour that the club would have to release, transfer or loan out at least 20 senior side members.

As it stands today, Roberto Mancini’s club is at 37 senior players. That’s peanuts compared to Liverpool, where Roy Hodgson walked into Rafa Benitez’s free-spending, mass transfer policy, left the club with nearly 45 player under contract. Rules or not, is there any good reason for the Reds to have six goalies on the books at Anfield?

Think this is only a problem for the “big” teams with deep cash reserves? Wolves, a modest club by most accounts, has nearly 40 players in the squad.

And what of all the players deemed surplus parts? Will they be loaned or farmed out to the Championship? Kept around for training sessions?

It’s not only player numbers and movement that’s puzzling on the roster restrictions.

As we know, players end up injured in the Premier League at a rather alarming rate. Will there be an injured reserve list, like we see in American sports? Simply plugging in a raw 21-year-old reserve player, which is allowed without counting toward the 25-man cap, doesn’t seem like the best solution. Eventually, yes, maybe when club’s devote more time to their academies, but right now?

Will we end up with a situation where clubs are forced to keep players around almost exclusively for European or Cup duty, where the restrictions aren’t in place. Sure you could argue Arsene Wenger already does this at Arsenal, but that’s usually to give his younger players first team minutes, not by necessity.

Granted, these are arguments that might cause managers to whine about, but since all 20 clubs are playing under the same rules are fair.

Last season, looking at the top seven clubs from the 2009-10 table, the restrictions might not be a huge issue. Arsenal had 21 players make over double-digit appearances (including subs), while Aston Villa only had 14.

What the roster limits are more likely to do is force managers to axe any players with lingering injuries or take less gambles on foreign players who may or may not adjust to life in English football. Clubs won’t be able to afford carrying dead weight like they have in the past, so there’s nothing necessarily wrong with curbing that.

In the long term this might help level the playing field, or at least clubs with smaller, cohesive squads who have to battle with teams with seemingly unlimited funds for backups and part-timers. The trouble will likely arise in the big clubs playing concurrently in Europe as they juggle their rosters over the crowded fixture lists.

No matter how it breaks, can’t you already picture an angry Sir Alex Ferguson sometime in November, sarcastically talking about the rule while his club battles with would-be injuries to key performers? He’s gone his whole adult coaching life at Old Trafford with a squad however big he deems fit, not some arbitrary rule.

Overall the Premier League’s new rules to develop and play more homegrown talent is, at it’s core, a noble if not jingoistic idea. In the long term it’ll likely help curb club spending and end the death spiral of debt that is eventually going to catch up with the league.

Yet tying it together with an arbitrary roster limit doesn’t seem all that well thought out and will certainly have clubs and managing screaming bloody murder by the crowded Boxing Day fixtures if not sooner.

In fact, to the horror of English purist, the move to limit rosters is if anything — an American professional sports idea.

Editor’s note: You can read more of Mike Cardillo’s articles on his blog, That’s On Point. Plus, you can follow Mike on Twitter @thatsonpoint

While I do not always agree with UEFA President Michel Platini, like his proposals for wage caps and vendetta against the big-spending Premier League, the Frenchman has been spot on in implementing more referee assistants on the pitch.

Platini was massive in introducing extra assistants to aid the referee in last season’s Europa League competition. In that system, one official is placed at each goal and can assist the referee with goal-line calls and penalties. Because of the success of that experiment, it was announced today that the International Football Association Board (IFAB) has ratified UEFA’s proposal for the use of extra officials in all Champions League matches for the 2010-2011 season.

While the system was largely a success in last year’s Europa League, there were a few instances where calls were missed in critical areas, leading cynics to proclaim that additional officials do very little. But, as this was the first time in history for extra assistants to be utilized, there were always going to be a few hiccups along the way. Errors could be blamed on the assistants not being authoritative enough, and UEFA should underline how important a job these goal-line assistants now have.

Giving these officials the confidence and authority to make difficult calls will ameliorate any tentativeness they may experience in their new position. Aside from the head referee, these officials may very well be the most important on the pitch. With these added assistants, a bounty of positives are introduced to the game:

A) Discouraging simulation: With an additional pair of eyes at each goal witnessing action in the most important area on the field, hopefully diving in the box will be discouraged. Players will know that cheating their way to a penalty could more easily be caught, and could be deterred from doing so. Well, maybe not the Latin players, but we can pray, can’t we?

B) Phantom goals: In the wake of Frank Lampard’s “ghost” non-goal in England’s second round defeat at the hands of Germany, adding these eyes is an absolute must.  Had there been an assistant watching Lampard’s shot as it left his foot and tracking it to the goal, England would certainly have been awarded their equalizer and perhaps the World Cup would have turned out differently (although probably not knowing the England players).

C) Spotting penalties and infractions: The most critical area of the pitch deserves a pair of eyes, does it not?  Ultimately, yes, the referee has the final say and will be the one blowing his whistle the minute he feels a penalty has occurred, but with an assistant present, if he is ambiguous on the call he can either default to or confer with his assistant to make sure he gets the call right.

Granted, calls will still be missed with these new assistants.  In American football, there are seven referees on the field with equal authority when it comes to calling an infraction, and there are still blown calls.

Is UEFA’s new system perfect?  No.  But they and IFAB have taken a monumental step in the right direction to clean up some of the abysmal officiating the sport indefensibly tolerates.  One thing is certain: FIFA will fall well behind their European counterpart on any progressive ideas to better the sport.

What do you think about this issue?  Good or bad move by UEFA?

So you may now recognise him as the head of U.E.F.A. and the man that moved the Champions League from a Wednesday night to a Saturday night. What you may not know is that Platini, for 3 or 4 years, was the best player in the world. A fabulous midfield play-maker of the highest level, Platini could destroy teams on his own when he was in the mood. The French side of the early 1980′s was a fabulous flowing football machine that perhaps should have won a World Cup but for one problem. West Germany.

Both in 1982 and 1986, France got to the semi-finals of the World Cup and both times they failed to get past West Germany. In between those semi-final heartbreaks, the French had won Euro 84 on home soil and were one of the best sides in the world. Platini’s artistry on the ball saw his country achieve heights they hadn’t matched for nearly 50 years but they fell short when it really mattered. During this period the French midfield were known as the “magic square”.

The only real issue the French had was the lack of a top quality striker and the teams tactics were designed to allow Platini to switch from midfield play-maker to centre forward with ease. It seems odd these days, but it sometimes falls that a country simply miss a player of real ability in a particular position for years. England had problems with both full back positions in the last few years but it was probably the lack of a top quality striker that held the French back on the world stage.

Of course, psychologically, West Germany had the Indian sign over the French especially after the horrific Schumacher challenge on Patrick Battison in the 1982 semi-final and whilst they were 3-1 up in that game, in 1986, the Germans never let them have a sniff at goal and won 2-0. Platini would join the ranks of players who never managed to win the World Cup despite being probably the best player in the world and is also in a select band of players that scored in 3 different World Cups, 1978, 1982 and 1986.

Platini was such a beautiful player, he never looked rushed whenever he was in possession. World Class players always seem to have so much time on the ball, but that’s what separates them from the rest. They just have that something else that allows them to achieve more than their contemporaries. Platini, for a midfielder scored so many goals and is currently France’s second highest international goalscorer, with 41 which he looks likely to hang on to for some considerable time.

His club career as well saw him leave the confines of the French League, after playing with AS Nancy and St. Etienne, to join Juventus in 1982 and he continued to deliver excellence after a difficult first 5 months in Italy. Playing in tandem with the Polish maestro Zbigniew Boniek who also joined the same year, Juventus were a force of football throughout the mid-1980′s. Under a youthful Giovanni Trapattoni, Juventus challenged for titles both at home and abroad, all built on the abilities of Platini.

Ironically, when Zidane retired immediately after the 2006 World Cup, it reminded me of when Platini bowed out in 1987, still only 32. No fuss, no real reasons, they’d just had enough of the game. Yet for the last 15 years, Platini has climbed the ladder in Eurpean football since being involved in running the 1998 World Cup and has been head of UEFA for 3 years now. From the footballing king of Europe in the 1980′s to the ruler of European football is some ride, but Platini never turned away from hard-work and dedication. A true World Cup legend of the modern age.

Please leave me your comments below or find me on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/paulbestall

My memories of how I learned about the news regarding the Hillsborough Disaster and the Bradford Fire Disaster are a lot more vivid than what happened 25 years ago today in the Heysel Stadium Disaster. Part of the reason was because both the Hillsborough and Valley Parade games were played on a Saturday, while the European Cup Final of 1985 was played on a Wednesday night in Brussels. For me, living in the United States, it was certainly easier to follow games on my shortwave radio on a Saturday morning when the signal was much more clearer than on a Wednesday afternoon when I would be working and the signal strength was abysmal.

Of course, these were the days long before when there was no live English football on television in the United States.

My memory is fuzzy but I  news of the Heysel Stadium Disaster was on the nightly network news in the States that evening. I remember feeling disgusted and ashamed of being a football supporter. This was only two weeks after the awful Bradford City fire disaster. And four years before the Hillsborough Stadium Disaster that was caused by a failure of police control.

While the death of football supporters at Hillsborough and Valley Parade was linked to circumstances outside of football hooliganism, the cause of death for the 39 fans who died on May 29 1985 can be linked directly to football hooliganism after they died when a wall collapsed due to Juventus fans trying to escape from the onrushing Liverpool supporters.

For the 1985 European Cup Final between Liverpool and Juventus, the Heysel Stadium in Belgium was segregated with Liverpool supporters at one end of the ground and Juventus fans at the other. However, next to the Liverpool supporters section was Block Z, which was meant for neutral supporters. These neutral tickets were put on open sale in Brussels in the weeks leading up to the tournament. Within hours of going on sale, they were all sold many of which were bought by the substantial Italian population in Brussels as well as travel agents and ticket touts. A small percentage of the tickets sold ended up in the hands of Liverpool fans.

On the day of the European Cup Final, Liverpool supporters found themselves next to a large contingent of Juventus fans, separated just by a few yards. Missiles began to be thrown by each set of team supporters. And many of them found stones from the crumbling terraces beneath them. Approximately one hour before the game was scheduled to start, the throwing of missiles became more intense. A group of Liverpool supporters then charged across the terraces and into the “neutral” section where the Juventus supporters stood. This caused the Juventus supporters to retreat. But having nowhere to escape, they ended moving towards a perimeter wall near the corner flag. Under the weight of all of the fans against the wall, some who tried to escape over it, the wall collapsed. At this point, most of the deaths occurred. Thirty nine in total and more than 600 people were injured.

The UEFA officials decided that the game should go ahead. Otherwise if they cancelled the game, they feared it would incite more violence. It was a game that few cared about after what had happened on the terraces.

Officially, the entire blame for the Heysel Stadium Disaster was placed on Liverpool supporters by UEFA. After an 18-month investigation by a Belgian judge, the dossier concluded that the blame should be shared by Liverpool supporters, police and football authorities.

As a result of the Heysel Disaster, UEFA banned English clubs from competing in European competitions for five years. Liverpool ended up being banned for six years.

Of the 39 football fans who died that terrible day, 32 of them were Italian fans of Juventus, four were Belgians, two French people and one man from Northern Ireland. May they all rest in peace.

• Everyone off the Coach, It’s Time for a Kick About

Not one of the four clubs competing in a European semi this week could manage an away win. Fulham came closest away to Hamburg as they set themselves up with a pretty decent chance of progressing through to the Europa League final with a 0-0 draw. The other three all lost.

Coincidence?

Or, were the incredibly long journeys by train, coach, canoe then train again possibly to blame for the players performances?

As midweek turns into the weekend, I can only look back in disapproval on the silly exploits of UEFA allowing these ridiculously long journeys (24 hours for Liverpool and Barcelona, 17+ hours for Fulham, over 2 days for Lyon) to those all important European semi finals for the four away clubs. Some of the news headlines went something like this:

Arduous Trek Will Not Affect Liverpool

Liverpool, Fulham begin long journey to semifinals

Barcelona bemoans bus trip to Milan

Roy Hodgson’s men bond during ‘never-ending’ journey

You get the picture. We’ve all been inundated with stories of Mt.E. (no point spelling it out, you can’t pronounce it anyway) affecting air travel across Europe. Hell, when the Frightened Rabbits can’t make it to the Coachella festival in California, not to mention Fulham being forced into a roadside kick about to keep fresh, something is amiss in the world.

So why didn’t UEFA step in and postpone these all important matches until clubs could resume their normal method of air travel? Should UEFA make the four teams who travel next week to the return legs take the same route and mode of transportation as their opponents took? Surely UEFA must recognize the advantage they’ve handed the home teams during the first legs.

You may be thinking to yourself, “these are professional athletes, some of the them world class. Shouldn’t they be able to overcome a long coach trip and perform up to their highest standards?” And a valid point that would be, however, in a match this important, this critical and with so much on the line, UEFA has to assure the playing field is as level as possible. Ask yourself this question, when will Fulham find themselves in another European semi?

All four clubs who participated in midweek away ties have been dealt a band hand by UEFA. They dropped the ball by not acting when they had the chance and should have postponed the first leg ties until air travel resumed. There’s not a chance in Nyon, Switzerland they’ll restrict the 2nd leg away clubs from air travel and have thus given a slight advantage to those four clubs.

Good luck to the remaining English clubs left in the Europa league and hopefully the best team will win over the course of the 2 leg ties. No thanks to UEFA for not standing up and making a tough decision when they needed to, and let’s hope their lack of a pair ultimately doesn’t hinder the four clubs who were forced into those long, arduous journeys.

After yesterday’s final games in the Champions League round of 16, we now know which teams will be in the hat tomorrow morning to decide who will play who in the quarter-finals. But before tomorrow’s draw, I thought it’d be fun to fantasize a little and think about which two teams would be the dream Champions League Final this year.

The eight teams who have qualified for the quarter-finals are:

• Arsenal
• Bayern Munich
• Barcelona
• Bordeaux
• CSKA Moscow
• Inter Milan
• Lyon
• Manchester United

For me, a dream final would be Manchester United against Inter Milan. Consider all of the storylines. It would be Ferguson against Mourinho. Premier League against Serie A. Wesley Sneijder against Michael Carrick. Italy against England (which could easily end up being a semi-final or final or quarter-final between the two countries in this summer’s World Cup). And the list goes on and on.

It would also be a great tactical and enjoyable game to watch, both defensively and offensively.

What about you? What would be your dream Champions League Final?

Well, you can’t blame them for trying, two weeks after that hand ball incident and FIFA and UEFA being as patronising as possible, the Football Association of Ireland have asked to be included in the World Cup draw on Friday as a 33rd team.I’ve just had the misfortune of sitting through a Sepp Blatter press conference, which saw a bunch of smug and arrogant bureaucrats laugh at Ireland’s suggestions. Quite what was so funny about it and Blatter’s excuse that Costa Rica would also want to go simply makes them look out of touch from reality.

He then decided to mention that Henry’s family had received death threats. Quite what that had to do with Irelands request wasn’t clear, but the message was. Ireland haven’t a prayer against this cartel. I’m struggling to understand what’s so funny about FIFA’s cowardice in dealing with this situation in an adult manner. An organisation that is run by autocratic and very undemocratic voting procedures seems adamant to cling to the past as long as it possibly can. By continually refusing to look at the bigger picture here, which has seen FIFA’s standing fall even lower than most people thought possible, they are beginning to resemble dinosaurs.

This continual defence of “We can’t introduce video technology” is fast losing any semblance of reality. Football is now the only major sport which will not allow video replays to decide incidents in play. Cricket, NFL, Rugby League and Rugby Union all now use the technology available to them to assist in supporting the match officials. How many mistakes must be brushed under as “human error” before Blatter and his cronies get the message. The match officials need help and only video technology can do it to the level required.

The old argument about the game being able to be played from top to bottom of the football tree with the same set up up is beyond pointless now. Top level football bares absolutely no comparison with Sunday morning football anymore. The balls, boots, pitches, officials, diets, goalkeepers gloves even the half time refueling are all miles apart now. When such matters as World Cup qualification are on the line, especially when accusations of bias abound, video technology allows the officials postion to be strengthened not weakened.

The other argument of slowing the game down is also pointless. Ireland’s protestations over Henry’s cheating took over 3 minutes to settle down. Are you telling me it would take 3 minutes for the replay to prove Henry handled it twice? Of course it wouldn’t. People say that it’s decisions like this that make the game what it is today and we need things to talk about. What an idiotic argument, we live in the 21st century, if anything it’s incidents like the Henry incident that can do untold damage to the game. It makes fans like me think whats the point when blatant cheating can go unpunished.

By refusing to even consider the possibility of bringing football into the 1980′s never mind the 21st century, Sepp Blatter and his self protecting friends are pouring scorn on the beautiful game. The dodgy European seedings, constant slating of English sides, refusal to accept video technology and the obvious fact that South Africa will be given the easiest group in Friday’s World Cup seedings show that FIFA is only interested in paying lip service to fair play and its place in the modern world. The reality is that FIFA will always protect its favourite countries over teams such as Ireland, Costa Rica and Turkey, surrounding itself with useless bureaucrats who only care about themselves and stuff the fans and football.

It seems like this is all coming out of nowhere. Any fan of the game knows that the “tapping-up” allegations have always been prominent but rarely has it been so harshly punished. From United’s perspective, they were accused of tapping up Dimitar Berbatov and Wayne Rooney in the recent past and accused Real Madrid of tapping-up Ronaldo(the accusing needed not be done, Ronaldo was caught on camera). Now, we have the tapping up issue of Paul Pogba.

This morning, FIFA announced the two-year transfer ban of Chelsea Football Club for acquiring the signature of Gael Kakuta, who had signed a non-solicitation agreement with French club Lens. This evening, The Times are reporting that a similar case has been filed against United for the signing of Le Havre youngster Paul Pogba and that the situation is not yet resolved, according the club’s managing director.

In a matter of days, we’ve heard about three issues that could potentially harm English teams. First, Michel Platini singled out Manchester City’s spending and claimed they would not be allowed to participate in Europe if they could not balance the books – all the while not mentioning the actions of Real Madrid. Now there are two more issues with top English clubs that could see a serious downsizing of the English club dominance – assuming the sanctions are carried out.

“Giggs looking to pick out Rooney… who’s got there, is that a penalty kick?! What does Mike Dean say?! He says penalty!”

This whole routine is getting a little old, isn’t it? Screw diamonds, refereeing mistakes are forever. It’s like the referees all convene and decide whose turn it is to make mistake and forbid us from ever forgetting how truly inadequate they are. Just when we’re about to move on from one refereeing saga, the Eduardo dive, Wayne Rooney provides the perfect half-dive(he was already going down, but there was contact) to remind us of the skinny men(excluding Howard Webb) in black. Pretty good timing though, being international week and all. Thanks, Wayne.

It’s really unfair to demonize the referees without looking first at those who bestowed such an enviable task upon them – the FA, FIFA, and UEFA. Instead of giving referees a requisite arsenal for calling a fair and accurate match, they provide them with an extreme protectionism that only vilifies them more. What I mean by this is similar to what Arsene Wenger meant when he labeled Eduardo’s ban a “disgrace.” Although I believe Wenger worsened his case with some of his comments, particularly trying to defend Eduardo with claims of contact being made or mentions of his injury, he makes one very good point. UEFA retrospectively overruled a decision the referee had dealt with on the pitch, something that has always been forbidden by the FA and UEFA. We are constantly reminded: if the referee did not take action, the governing body cannot take action. The governing bodies do this to protect the referees and credit them with the final word. This was cited as the reason Jose Bosingwa was not banned for clear red-card kick on Benayoun and why Michael Ballack was not punished after the Barcelona match, just to name two examples. UEFA seem so eager to protect the decisions made by the referee that they blindly accept reversible mistakes. With the Eduardo ban, UEFA prove themselves to be hypocrites.

In last year’s Champions League semi-final between Arsenal and Manchester United, Darren Fletcher brilliantly stuck in a toe to legally win the ball from Cesc Fabregas, and he was handed a red-card. The only way to get the unjust red-card overturned, UEFA said, is if the referee mistook Fletcher for another person – in which case a different person would be banned for a legal challenge. As they always do, UEFA came to the rescue of the referee and punished the player – who actually plays the sport – with a Champions League Final suspension. In fact, Eduardo was not banned for simulation, he was banned for “deceiving the referee.” If they charge him for simulation, they accept that the referee made a mistake, but when they charge him for “deceiving the referee,” they make the referee the victim. In his own words Michel Platini removes blame of the referee,

“However, on Wednesday he showed disrespect to the game by his actions in winning a penalty against Celtic.”

The way he phrases this, you’d think Eduardo was the referee and awarded himself the penalty.

This is where I may surprise you. I wanted Eduardo to get banned for cheating, plain and simple. Bans for diving needed to start sometime and now is perfectly suitable.  A friend of mine had a perfect analogy, “Cavemen used to kill each other for sport, does that mean we should never have made a law against murder?” However, in order for UEFA to really make a difference, they’re going to have to change a lot and to be honest, they probably won’t.

First, the next time Ronaldo, Messi or Kaka clearly dives in the Champions League, they should be banned for two matches. If they want to show they’re serious, they can make an example of a superstar and show football what nobody believes, that UEFA is unbiased. Second, the players need to be protected, not the referees. Why punish a player or a team to protect the least profitable and marketable aspect of the game, the referees? All decisions should be available for overruling if they are clearly incorrect. Lastly, give referees the technologies that any supporter of football has from his living room. The problem is that the governing bodies are run by older people whose playing days didn’t know anything of instant replay. The game has changed and technology has changed but sadly, they have not. This leads me to believe that instant replay and goal-line technology are inevitable, seeing as they are supported by the majority, just not the right majority. Adding an extra referee will further the problem, not solve it. If you’re playing with a flat football, do you go and get another flat football? As Slaven Bilic famously said, “Wake up.”

UEFA will fine both Arsenal and Manchester United £5,000 respectively for fan incidents during last years Champions League semifinals.  An Arsenal fan hit Nemanja Vidic with a plastic bottle.  A Manchester United supporter hurled a smoke bomb onto the pitch.    The actions were potentially serious.  The fines are not.

UEFA functions like all bureaucracies.  It continues actions without a hint of rational analysis, solely because it was policy beforehand.  Has no one questioned the purpose of these penalties?

The sums under discussion are trivial.  Both Manchester United and Arsenal measure turnover in the hundreds of millions.  Five thousand pounds neither attracts attention nor deters future behavior.  It is doubtful Arsenal will now institute a plastic bottle task force.

It does not stop supporters.  If you throw a projectile into the pitch, it is assumed you will be banned.  The thought of the club paying a paltry fine in addition does not factor into the decision.

The fines are also not cost effective.  There must be a meeting to determine whether a meeting to discuss these incidents is required.  Someone has to schedule, to organize and to provide amenities for that meeting, which, with UEFA, is probably a lavish lunch.  They may even fly people in for it.  Someone has to contact the clubs to make statements.  Once the issue is deemed punishment-worthy, another meeting must take place.  The process takes months.  The sum cost exceeds the amount returned in fines.

UEFA penalizing Arsenal and Manchester United accomplishes only one thing.  It re-publicizes unsavory events long-forgotten and ultimately insignificant.

Rationales are non-existent.  The fines are useless.  UEFA should give meaningful punishments, or none at all.