My main argument is straight-forward, if not necessarily a very popular one. It is that having similar punishments for domestic and international games is not fair. A three match domestic ban has far less impact than a three match international ban. Domestically, a player might be out of action for a fortnight. An international ban can leave a player in the wilderness for a large chunk of a year, and as we saw with Rooney, could wipe out participation in a whole tournament.
This doesn’t seem fair to me, and punishments should be more proportional. Yes, getting a ban just prior to the finals of a tournament could be seen as bad luck (or timing), just as getting banned for an FA Cup final would be, but getting banned for three matches during a qualification campaign would still see you off international duties for up to half a year (for games of consequence at least). The FA have invited criticism by appealing Rooney’s ban, as they seem to condone violent conduct, going against everything they preach about “fair play” on the pitch. But if they hadn’t appealed, they would have been slammed in the press anyway. Any FA would have appealed, as it was in their interest, and the fans’ interest to do so. After all, even the player Rooney kicked thought the ban was too harsh.
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Rooney was stupid to kick out at the opposition player, as he has been stupid many times before. He cannot bemoan the red card he got, and he cannot bemoan a suspension – but three matches was too harsh in my opinion – the route to getting it reduced may have been flawed, a route involving a campaign by our Football Association until they got their way, but the end result was fair.
The length of a sporting ban, be it for violent conduct, accumulation of cards, taking a banned substance or pushing a referee to the ground, is not a set amount laid out in some magical rule book deep in the vaults of FIFA HQ. A ban should enforce the sufficient punishment for the crime committed. Rooney deserves no sympathy for his various misdemeanours, but missing what could be two-thirds of England’s Finals campaign is to me a punishment that fits the crime.
Written by Howard Hockin for FootballFancast.com.
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