Let’s be clear: Arteta did definitely bring the game into disrespute. His sideline antics and his post-match presser were a hotbed of disrespute. The mere notion that a goal scored should stand despite the ball appearing to roll across the endline, Joelinton shoving Magalhães with both arms, and Gordon tapping in from what appeared to be an offside position beggars belief. Any one of those three should have disallowed the goal, let alone all three combined.
Arteta should have been fined. Hell, he should have been made to serve another touchline ban. By having the temerity to suggest that Attwell and VAR got it wrong, he most definitely brought the game into disrespute. We simply can’t have these managers going rogue, pointing out over and over where the referees have gotten it wrong. It’s far better for the game’s reputation that managers toe the party line, swallow their pride, and stomach the results. Right?
Spare a thought for the referees. It must be difficult to make split-second decisions under such pressure. Then again, that’s where VAR was supposed to step in. However, instead of creating an objective system free from bias, the FA in its infinite wisdom appointed other referees to review on-field decisions. What could go wrong with appointing members of a clique (or cabal…) to review the decisions of their on-field chums? Heavens forfend that the FA hire a gaggle of tech-nerds to oversee VAR decisions instead of a bunch of Boomer-types who still haven’t set the clock on their VCRs, nevermind their ability to draw lines on a 21st-century screen.
Now might be a worthwhile time to look up verbal irony. Just an aside. I suffer from ADHD. That’s all there is to that remark, nothing more.
By refusing to sanction Arteta, the FA have inadvertently encouraged the very behaviour that they hoped to prevent. It’s a good thing for them that Arteta is quite possibly the only Prem manager in history to criticise on-field decisions. They might otherwise have stirred up a hornet’s nest of problems. I’m sure that a thoroughly chastened Arteta will mind his p’s and q’s going forward.
Lest there remain any doubt, the FA offered this not-at-all mealy-mouthed or laughably ludicrous linguistic legalese:
The word ‘disgrace’… has a very similar spelling and pronunciation to the Spanish ‘desgracia’… the Spanish word has connotations of misfortune, tragedy or bad luck rather than the connotations of the English equivalent which suggest contempt, dishonour or disrespect. While the English meaning may lead to interpretations of abuse or insult, this was not the intended meaning.
I’ll give you a moment to wipe clean your screen after your spit-take.
Reviewing Arteta’s post-Newcastle presser, he most definitely used the very-English word “disgrace,” not the Spanish desgracia. Something tells me that a Spaniard who spent 13 years as a player in Scotland and England and another eight years in managerial positions in England would know the ever-so-subtle nuances in meaning between the English word “disgrace” and the Spanish word desgracia (which he most definitely didn’t even use in the first place).
At a risk of overstating conclusions, we might just have to chalk off this latest decision from the FA as yet another exhibit in the ever-growing case against their competence. I’m sure that Arteta has learnt his lesson, and it’s one that he’ll take to heart. Along similar lines, I’m sure that Klopp, Guardiola, Emery, Pochettino, Ten Hag, and countless others will have seen the suffering that Arteta has suffered and will adjust their future conduct accordingly.
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