All these lame fools who are trying to kill or maim the 'dodgy referee' should remember that Chelsea is only where it is because of the financial input of Roman Abramovich - one of the dodgiest businessmen in the world. An oligarch who made his money via the World-Bank sanctioned robbing of the Russian people after the fall of the Soviet Union, as the sell-off of state-owned industries concentrated huge amounts of wealth and power in the hands of the few.
Given the immense bias of UK Premiership and European football towards clubs with the financial clout to buy all the best players and management expertise (and the lobbying clout to persuade UEFA to structure the "Champion's League" so that they get in every year, even if they haven't won anything), I would say it is the duty of referees to interpret the rules in a biased manner. The bias should, if possible, be approximately equal to the differential in money and power between the teams. So that means if I put together a Sunday league side to play Manchester United, I should be allowed 200 players on the pitch, my goal should only be 1 foot wide and my team should get penalties roughly every 90 minutes as a matter of course.
Football would suddenly become interesting again. There is a similar system in golf. It's called "handicapping" (a rather offensive term, but then golf clubs never were known for being very PC) and it works rather well.
I'll probably apply for a management job in FIFA armed with this theory. You never know.
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Believe it or not, the system is changing. A number of teams got into the First round from countries such as Belarus which previously wouldn't have been allowed (they wouldn't have been beyond the second qualifying round)and the UEFA president, Michel Platini, himself a winner of the tournament when it was actually some kind of achievement (On a disastrous night for football unfortunately in 1985 at Heysel) to win it, is a huge proponent of some kind of reform.
The dissolution of the G18 and it's replacement by a pan European grouping system is also a welcome step. The road to some kind of interest (at least for the neutral)in the tournament and its restoration to a knockout tournament will be long and painful but hopefully it can recover some of its former glory.
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