Buzzin Football

Sunderland and Scotland goalkeeper Craig Gordon suggests that the two match ban received by Arsenal’s Eduardo for diving in the Champions League knock out match against Celtic, was worth it to Arsenal.

He says that it is infuriating for goalkeepers to have a penalty given against them when they know they have not touched the attacking player but also adds that if they same thing were to happen in favour of Scotland and it meant making the play offs of the World Cup it would be a different story.

Gordon says that Arsenal progressing into the Champions League group stage is worth £16million to the club and despite the retrospective ban, would probably have earned Eduardo a further £100,000 in bonuses.

“You can see what it means to players and why someone would do that, to win a game by any means possible. It’s not nice but I don’t see how we can stamp it out of the game. He got a two-match ban. Is it worth it for getting to the group stages where they will possibly progress from that? It probably is worth it to guarantee your team is in that competition.”

“It is something that goes on,”  adds Gordon and none of us need to be reminded of that. I firmly believe that in the Eduardo case, Arsenal had a two goal advantage from the first leg and it is unlikely that they would have been beaten by Celtic on the night.

However the ban given to Eduardo proves that UEFA believed that the player dived. The dive resulted in Arsenal taken the lead in the second leg and subsequently winning the tie. How long before we see a club take legal action against teams that have ‘cheated’ to win a game?

At Champions League level, if Gordon is correct, Celtic have not only lost the game but also their share of the prize money for making it to next stage. Arsenal on the other hand are quids in but will have to make do without one of their strikers for two games.

Too much money and not enough justice perhaps?