Anorak

Cardiff City

Posts Tagged ‘Cardiff City’

Emiliano Sala: Daily Mirror turns his girlfriend into clickbait

Luiza Ungerer

Before he died during a flight over the English Channel, the British media was not interested in Emiliano Sala. Signed by Cardiff City from Nantes for a club record fee of £15 million (€18 million), Sala became front-page news when the plane carrying him to Wales crashed. Terrible. But not all bad to the Mirror, which seeks to milk the story with a tale of Sala’s “secret lover”.

Oh, you wonder. Was the Argentine footballer married and playing away from home? No. He wasn’t married. So why was his lover a “secret”. Well, she wasn’t. Luiza Ungerer and Sala had been dating since 2017. She’s been talking to Globo in her native Brazil about her love for him, recalling how fans used to pat him on the back as they strolled together round Nantes. 

Photos of the couple are all over Instagram. Not clandestine shots of them sneaking about. These are phots of them on their social media accounts. The Mirror opts to feature one of Ungerer in a bikini on the beach. Give never looked so titillating.

Journalism, eh. It’s not all speaking truth to power. Sometimes it’s shameless clickbait.

Posted: 13th, February 2019 | In: Key Posts, Sports | Comment


Cardiff City: Sol Bmba has blue skin

bamba shirt cardiff

 

Did Cardiff City’s Sol Bamba take his shirt off after hitting the deciding goal in his side’s 2-1 win over Brighton? Unless the new Brighton kit is made of human skin, yes, he did. Removing your shirt warrants a yellow card. But he didn’t get one.

Last week Demarai Gray ripped off his shirt after scoring for Leicester City. Gray wanted to show his T-shirt, a tribute to  Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, the Leicester owner who died in a helicopter crash. “For Khun Vichai”, ran the legend on Gray’s chest. Referee Lee Probert gave Gray a yellow.

So why didn’t Martin Atkinson give Bamba a yellow for doing the same? “The ref said to me ‘did you take your shirt off?’ I said ‘no I didn’t’,” said Bamba after the game.

If you can’t see a big lad with his shirt off, what else can’t you see? Brighton manager Chris Hughton is bemused. “I don’t think it looked like Sol Bamba is offside, he was offside,” he said of the winning goal, scored in the 90th minute. “Referees have difficult decisions to make, especially with Cardiff’s style of play. But what you want them to do is make the big decisions correctly.”

No word from Atkinson. But we can tell him that Cardiff play in blue.

 

Posted: 11th, November 2018 | In: Sports | Comment


Manchester City’s artists, Leroy Sane’s leg and Neil Warnock’s ‘broken leg’

It should have been a red card. Joe Bennett’s nasty foul on Leroy Sane during Cardiff City’s 0-2 defeat to Manchester City in the FA Cup earned him just a yellow card (he’d go on to foul again, get a second yellow and be dismissed). Bennett, the Cardiff full-back, has apologised for the foul that could costs City Sane’s presence on the pitch for a month or more.

“For football in general players are the artists. The only thing they can do is protect them,” says City manger Pep Guardiola after the game. “Referees have to protect – not just mine, all players. Sane will be out for a while. Maybe two or three weeks, or a month, we will see tomorrow. It’s his ankle.”

 

 

 

 

The Bluebirds committed 14 fouls in the match, just two more than the Premier League leaders.

“Did I fear serious injuries?,” continues Guardiola. “Of course. Every team can play how they want. If they decide to play in that way, perfect. But there is one man, in black, and he has to decide what is correct and incorrect. When you say: ‘Why don’t you win the four titles?’ I need the players to win the four titles.”

Cardiff manager, Neil Warnock, replies: “City dished out a bit, as well. He [Guardiola] is in England. What do you expect? I suppose when you’re like that you want everything to be nice and pretty but you don’t get that in England. You get different challenges, don’t you?”

Double standards much. Is the Cardiff manager any relation to the Neil Warnock who after his Crystal Palace side lost to Chelsea opined: “I thought he was influenced by one or two things. John Terry’s (non) booking – if that’s one of my players, it’s a booking. I don’t understand why it’s not an even platform.”

And the Neil Warnock who this season observed: “That’s three or four games where we’ve had crucial decisions go against us. Those are the decisions you want the officials to get right and at the moment they’re getting most of them wrong. It’s scandalous at the moment. I’ve never known it as poor, the officials.”

And what about this in Seeing Red by former referee Graham Poll:

Warnock constantly belittled officials and by doing so and getting away with it he encouraged the climate of abuse and insults which every referee has to suffer.

Everyone who pulls on a referee’s shirt knows criticism is part of the deal but that does not mean it has to be encouraged. By letting the Warnocks of football get away with repeatedly chipping away at referees, the authorities fail in their duty of care…

In Europe, UEFA take a much tougher line with managers and so, in European games, managers and coaches have a less aggressive attitude. They know that if they step out of line UEFA will hammer them. Similarly, UEFA punish any manager who criticises an official through the media. But in England, it is always open season on referees.

Warnock and those like him routinely carp at match officials, their level of performance and even their neutrality. So I hoped he would |be taught a lesson – not for my benefit but for the good of the game. Yet when he was charged with misconduct, he remained unrepentant.

In fact, he said he did not want Premier League officials in charge of his games. He got his way for a few years, because his team lost in the promotion play-off final that season and so stayed in the Football League. Inevitably, he blamed the referee, Steve Bennett, for losing to Wolves in the play-off final.

And so, in August 2003, Warnock was handed a four-game touchline ban and fined &300 – that’s 300 whole pounds – for two misconduct charges. One related to his comments about me; the other was for insulting Steve Bennett during the play-off final.

Fast-forward three years and Sheffield United won promotion to the Premier League. Their next match was against local rivals Leeds United who were pushing for a play-off place. Their manager was Kevin Blackwell who had been Warnock’s assistant at Sheffield United and the manner of his ‘defection’ had angered Warnock.

Blackwell and Leeds coach John Carver were aggressively vocal in the other dug- out but Warnock behaved himself until just before half-time when Craig Short of Sheffield United and Leeds’ Gary Kelly went for a 50-50 ball. Paul Robinson, the fourth official, called me over and reported that Warnock had shouted: ‘Next time I hope he (Kelly) breaks his f***ing leg.’

What a viciously spiteful thing to say about any player. I sent Warnock to the stand – one of the easiest decisions I had to make in 27 years – but he complained that the fourth official had it in for him and refused to go. He was out of control.

Guardiola’s response to a nasty foul on one of his star players is measured. He wants all players to be protected. But when put through the tabloid mincer, the Spaniard comes across like a wally:

According to the Mail, Guardiola flounced and screamed: “Leave My Artists Alone.”

 

tackle leroy sane

 

Other papers lead with the nasty foul:

tackle leroy sane tackle leroy sane

As for the tackle, let’s see how the clubs’ websites report it:

Cardiff City official website: not a single word.

Manchester City FC: “Just before the break a rapid Sane counter attacked was ended by Joe Bennett’s poor foul, and the German was replaced at the break by Sergio Aguero.” Plus a story entitled: “PEP CALLS FOR MORE PROTECTION AFTER SANE FOUL ​”

Bias in abundance, then. Which is why the referee is so vital.

Posted: 29th, January 2018 | In: Back pages, Manchester City, News, Sports | Comment


Cardiff City fan Neil Kinnock is a football hooligan?

IF

IF

FORMER Labour party leader Neil Kinnock, now working as Baron Kinnock of Bedwellty is, allegedly, a football hooligan. Kinnock was was reportedly kicked out of his seat while watching Cardiff City play Fulham at Craven Cottage this weekend after upsetting home fans by “wildly celebrating” his side’s goals.

According to the Telegraph, Kinnock provoked “angry responses” from the Fulham fans sitting around him by jumping up and down following Steve Caulker’s 12th-minute opener and was then seen again “going bonkers” – having already been escorted (along with his two grandchildren) to a different part of the stadium – when Jordon Mutch scored his sublime 90th-minute winner.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted: 1st, October 2013 | In: Sports | Comment


The lower-league legends who played for England

THEY came from nowhere… Meet the lower-league legends who graced the highest stage of all.

Wilfried Zaha’s call-up to the full England squad has raised eyebrows among those accustomed to the Premier League closed shop that has become the norm in recent times. But there are historical precedents for the Crystal Palace wide man’s sudden rise to fame – and not all the lower-league debutants are from the dim and distant past…

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted: 13th, November 2012 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, Sports | Comment


The football teams that changed their kits and won and lost their identities

ANORAK presents a history of football club shirt changes, featuring: Cardiff City, Arsenal, Manchester United, Leeds United, Millwall, Juventus, Coventry City and Crystal Palace…

AMID all the Euro hype, one piece of football news has largely slipped under the radar: Cardiff City FC have confirmed what many suspected – that they will now play in red, because the colour is more appealing to the club’s Malaysian owners than the traditional blue strip.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted: 10th, June 2012 | In: Key Posts, Sports | Comment