Monday 14 September 2009

Uefa Overturns Eduardo Ban

Breaking news this evening...
Uefa has overturned its decision to ban Arsenal striker Eduardo for two Champions League games for diving.

The Croatian was suspended after being found guilty of diving to win a penalty in the Champions League qualifier against Celtic on 26 August but on Monday, Uefa accepted Arsenal's appeal and he will now be eligible to play in their opening two Group H ties.

A Gunners statement read: "We are grateful the right decision has been reached in this case. We were able to show there was contact between the keeper and Eduardo and that the decision should be annulled. We fully support the drive for fair play in football and believe it is important that Uefa provides clear and comprehensive standards that will be consistently enforced going forward. We are glad to put this incident behind us and concentrate on the games ahead."

Arsenal had called the initial decision by Uefa "deeply flawed".

A Uefa statement on Monday said: "Following examination of all the evidence, notably the declarations of both the referee and the referees' assessor, as well as the various video footage, it was not established to our satisfaction that the referee had been deceived in taking his decision on the penalty."

Arsenal begin their Champions League group stage campaign with a trip to the Maurice Dufrasne Stadium to face Standard on Wednesday.
I know a lot of people had picked Eduardo for Week 5 as they expected him to miss the Champions League game and get extensive game time next weekend. I now expect him to play a significant role over in Liege on Wednesday so it's certainly something to keep an eye on.

Cheers,
AM

11 comments:

Naning said...

Bad news... Terrible news. Now Benitez is getting even more interesting.

Anonymous said...

First of all, I want to congratulate UEFA for making the right decision - even if he had dived, he still should have been punished by a yellow card and nothing more.
I was quite confident about my team until today, when I had some second thoughts. I thought about dropping Hunt, but after looking at Hull's schedual, I saw that besides of Liverpool, they have a pretty easy one, and he can always get points. So I think I'll keep him.
My problem is about one spot at midfield and one on the back: I have Skrtel from which I'm afraid I won't get too many points without a CS, and Lampard that gives me every week good 12-15 points, but nothing more than that.
I thought about replacing them both for Fabregas (who has some 5-6 easy games before spurs) and Warnock (almost the perfect defender for fantasy, and sure to have CS next week). It sounds to me like a good plan, but I want to read AM's opinion about it, and I'll probably wait to the CL matches on mid-week for the final decision...
What do you think?

Anonymous said...

Loading up on Arsenal again is making me nervous after my Week 2 fiasco. The expected trouncing of Pompey happened all right, but the four goals came from Diaby, Gallas, and Ramsey. Fabregas generated bubkes before going off injured (the goal by his replacement adding insult to injury).

Since I was visiting relatives this weekend, alas I had to rush my BDing, and I should've done better (e.g., missed Warnock). There's a potentially improved line-up I can still create within current valuations, but as it relies on freeing up money by swapping in Eduardo, I'll wait until closer to the deadline to judge his prospects and to adjust for any post-CL injuries.

-Bradley

Max said...

good & bad news..

good - eduardo might realise how important himself in the team and will now play 101% everytime..

bad - wenger might get eduardo less time on the pitch due to his commitment in the cl.. rotation, rests.. that stuffs..

and i got him for week5 too.. :p

imho.
Max..

Dare to Devil said...

Currently my team looks like this

Given
Verm Sonko Heitinga
Lamps Hunt O'Hara Fabregas
Rooney Drogba Tuncay

Given - I have stated very early on he will be a season keeper. Perform well to earn 6 pts last week even though conceded 2 goals. I am sticking with him for the Manchester derby

Verm - cheap & will return his value even w/o CS

Sonko - cheap filler & good fixture

Heitinga - with Neville's injury, he looks likely to start.

Lamps - He is one of those core players that I keep regardless of the matchup. So far, he has been consistently solid if somewhat unspectacular.

Hunt - Good matchup for Hull, got me 13.5 points last week.

O'Hara - Like everybody else I am off the Milijas bandwagon

Fab - Arsenal will have the opportunity to bounce back after 2 straight defeats. I am counting on Fab to destroy Wigan

Rooney - Got him since Week 1 & he had more than repaid my faith in him with 5 goals!

Drogba - I got him for 10, will be keeping him until the African Cup of Nations at the very least.

Tuncay - 1.00!

Feel free to comment...will like to hear suggestions on how to further strengthen my team ^^ Thanks....

Mike D said...

Need some advice...4 squads to choose from:

Myhill
Verm, Heitinga, Sonko
Stevie G, Fabs, Lamps, JRod
Drogs, Tuncay, Yak

Myhill
Verm, Heitinga, Dunne
Stevie G, Fabs, Hunt, Milner
Drogs, Tuncay, Yak

Myhill
Verm, Heitinga, Warnock
Stevie G, Fabs, Hunt, O'Hara
Drogs, Tuncay, Yak

Wild Card Squad
MyHill
Verm, Heitinga, Sonko
Stevie G, Fabs, BFAY, MTAY, Moko
Drogs, Tuncay

Let me know....Thanks!

Mike D said...

or....

Myhill
Verm, Heitinga, Sonko
Stevie G, Fabs, BFAY, Hunt
Drogs, Tuncay, Yak

I'm liking this one a lot actually

Mike D said...

What are your thoughts on Yak actually getting some minutes this week?

I'm tempted to go for a Milner/BFAY combo if Yak isn't going to go 60+

Everton definitely needs to try something new though...

Id be interested to hear your opinion

Mike D said...

I realize Ive been talking to myself for the past hour or so...but Ive talked myself into the following:

Myhill
Verm, Heitinga, Dunne,
Fabs, Mtay, BFAY, Milner, Hunt
Drogs, Tuncay

I think this is it unless someone comvinces me that Yak is a better pick over Milner or Hunt

Let me know what you think

Cheers

Anonymous said...

who is BFAY?

-faiz-

Anonymous said...

BFAY = Blog Favorite Ashley Young

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