文章基本信息

标题：FA bending it for Beckham
作者：DAVID THOMAS
期刊名称：London Evening Standard
印刷版ISSN：2041-4404
出版年度：2002
卷号：Sep 17, 2002
出版社：Associated Newspaper Ltd.

FA bending it for Beckham

DAVID THOMAS

DAVID Beckham sticks his elbow in Lee Bowyer's face. Bowyer falls to the ground. A free-kick is given. Beckham protests, "I never touched him."

Referee Jeff Winter's happy. Sir Alex, obviously, sees nothing. On Sky TV, Mark Hughes and David O'Leary say nothing. And the FA does nothing.

Meanwhile Thierry Henry raises his elbow towards Charlton's John Robinson, unseen by referee Steve Dunn, and makes no contact whatsoever. Play continues.

Robinson has no complaint. And Henry faces a FA disciplinary hearing.

The discrepancy is so blatant that it's tempting to see a conspiracy: Manchester United and England against Arsenal and France. But this is more of a classic British cock-up, caused by a preference for rulebooks over common sense. The law is an ass. Or, since this is football, a donkey.