Media Hypocrisy: As Stoke Threaten To Bully And Kick Arsenal
ByAfter the furore over the William Gallas affair, it was timely that Wenger reminded the very media that revels in peddling sensationalism, that they’re as two faced and biased as they come.
In the non-footballing world that we live in, publicly threatening to assault and injure other human beings is actually a criminal offence. I think they call it conspiracy, in this case Conspiracy to commit ABH or GBH.
On the issue, Wenger said:
There was too much made about the William Gallas incident. It was a mistimed challenge but without any intention to harm the player.
What is more funny is that, when we get kicked, some people say before the game ‘we know how to play Arsenal, we have to kick them’ and nobody in the whole country is upset by that. I am always absolutely amazed that people get away with it.
When we get kicked and lose the game, the question I get from the press is ‘oh, you did not fancy that’. But nobody is upset or shocked by it. When we are kicked they find that it is absolutely all right.
Step forward Ricardo Fuller, and right on cue too.
The Stoke forward shamelessly peddles the fact that Stoke’s strategy tomorrow is to bully and kick the hell out of Arsenal because the Gunners don’t like it ’up their noses’. He even claims that Chelsea and Bolton do this job very effectively (though I highly doubt he watched Arsenal’s last 2 games).
Even more disgusting, is that the media print and broadcast this sort of incitement to violence as credible news. I think they call it build up to the game, or something dramatic like that.
This is the same media that decides to apply selective amnesia and totally over-react to incidents that help them peddle their narrative of pigeon-holing Arsenal as the also-rans the establishment wants them to be.
Wenger’s take again on this is simple and refreshing:
The problem in England is that the sensitivity of one media dictates what the whole country has to think and I raise big question marks over the competence and the objectivity of the guys who make these kind of decisions.
Maybe Arsenal should just look at the threat to maim their players as a compliment from teams who can’t cope with Arsenal. Anyone reasonable would expect that an opposing team will at least try and play some football.
The Gunners though, are most definitely a different proposition, and have shown that they’re not going to be bullied off the park. If it means taking one for the team, the players are willing to – what do they say – mix it a bit.
It’s unfortunate though, that the FA have not seriously taken FIFA’s recent ruling that technically gifted players must be protected by referees. It truly is sad when this sort of violence is sanctioned in the name of association football.
It’s even sadder when the careers of technically gifted players are put at risk because other less technical players opt for violence instead of trying to play football.
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Tue 13th September 2011; 19:45, Dortmund
It seems to me that the FA is breaching a duty of care to the basic health & welfare of professional football players by not slapping strong disrepute charges on those players who consistently threaten to thuggishly assault and rough up Arsenal players when they’re about to play them.
Such players never make threats of that nature about other clubs…but they consistently do so with Arsenal.
Magneto. Incidentally, the FA Chief Executive Ian Watmore is a life long Arsenal supporter.
Imagine what the media will do if and when he stamps down on the public assault on Arsenal.
FIFA’s recent ruling that technically gifted players must be protected by referees was interesting, but should not have been necessary.
Because if referees & their assistants were doing their jobs properly, consistently and impartially, all professional football players would be protected, whether they are technically gifted or not.
FIFA and FA’s could obviously help referees & their assistants to do their jobs much more effectively if they allowed them to make use of instant video replays and other current IT aids too.
The FA needs to act to stop blood baying press and clubs. It is not healthy for a society to allow such people to prosper. Very soon, all of our youngsters will begin to threaten to maim their mates at school. They will claim that footballer do it regularly, so it is okay. We need to let the police actually arrest perpetrators of ABH & GBH on the pitch as well as those whose threaten to do it, as they would anyone who does it off the pitch.