Date: 29th March 2010 at 4:12pm
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If this morning’s papers were to be believed, then our title hopes were set to take a massive blow as they reported that Nemanja Vidic faced a 4 match ban for an elbow on Johan Elmander during Saturday’s game at Bolton.

It was reported that the FA would be reviewing the incident and a decision was to be made but today the FA has confirmed that no further action will be taken against the Serbian, and rightly so.

Last week Sir Alex labelled the Football Association’s disciplinary department as a “dysfunctional unit” and called for its over haul after they decided not to punish Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard for a blatant elbow on Portsmouth’s Michael Brown. So for Vidic to be punished for the aerial challenge on Elmander it would  not only have been a slap in the face to Sir Alex for his comments but also a blow to our title challenge.

With Rio Ferdinand already handed a 4 match ban (3 for his actual offense and 1 extra for a ‘frivolous’ appeal) but no extra match added to Arsenal’s Thomas Vermaelen’s ban after Arsenal decided to appeal his straight red against West Ham, Sir Alex was already  aggrieved and if Vidic had been banned it would have furthered aggravated him.

It is an arguement that has raged in football for a while but the fact remains that it is near impossible to jump and gain any leverage without using your arms. This isn’t to say you should be allowed to jump and throw your arms and elbows about with reckless abandon but Vidic hardly did that.

The mere fact that it was thought that Vidic faced a ban was ridiculous, Vidic is known to be quite dominant in the air and his challenge wasn’t any more malicious than any of the other headers he won during the game, it just so happened that Elmander was hurt in this one.

To me it was an unfortunate accident and now it has been put to bed we can focus on retaining our title.

 

7 responses to “FA made right decision with Vidic”

  1. Bob Spencer says:

    Get your facts straight: the F.A. could NOT punish Gerrard, because the referee saw the incident and decided he’d handled the punishment on the spot, by giving a free-kick to the other team. The F.A. was powerless in those circumstances.

  2. giggs11gerrard0 says:

    FA have reported that they will not be looking into this! The FA would have caused murder if they had after Stevie ME twice should have been banned, Malouda and Sturridge causing ABH, and that transvestite from Liverpool deliberately kicking the penalty spot!

    BTW great blog chaps, i saw the link on ROM and thought I would have a butchers!

  3. Chudi Onwuazor says:

    @Bob
    I have not made this up, my facts are straight. Sir Alex was disappointed that Steven Gerrard did not face punishment for a clear elbow on Brown, whether it was a red card during the game or action after (I am well aware of the FA’s policy not to punish players retrospectively).

  4. wiuru says:

    Im another reader from ROM .
    IMHO Bolton decided the game they were going to play ,the whole match Vida was superb in the air . At half time he came off 1 a black eye 2 a lump like an egg on his forehead also a bruised chin . A great preformance from him Bolton aknowledged that . Lets enjoy watching players like Vida. SAF hit the nail on the head (Bolton) people in glass houses shouldnt throw stones .

  5. Chudi Onwuazor says:

    Welcome to both giggs11gerrard0 & Wiuru. I hope you like the site and hope to see you both here more often.

    I agree Bolton are known to be quite rough so its amazes me that they are kickking up such a fuss over what I believe was an accident.

  6. giggs11gerrard0 says:

    The performance of Vidic last Saturday was the best I have seen from a United player for a long time! I thought he was world class. I said last summer loosing Vida would be a lot worse than loosing Ronnie. I dont think there is a better centre half in the world. (i do wear tinted glasses though)

  7. Interesting…and I agree in the most part. Keep up the excellent work…I will certainly be back soon