A European Embarrassment

Just when you think that things over at the White House are starting to stabilize you get the news of Madrid’s Football Directors latest fumble. It turns out Madrid now have to chose whether to register Lass or Huntelaar for the Champions League. A standing UEFA rule 17.18 states, “One player from the above quota of three who played UEFA club competition matches for another competing club in the current season may exceptionally be registered, provided that the player has not been field in the same competition for another club.” If we recall correctly the reason these players where brought to the club was so they could play in all competitions. To be able to play in the Champions League was one of the specific requirements for a players arrival. Still, the genuises over at Madrid, Mijatovic and Brucero, never bothered to do their job correctly and produced a damaging problem for Madrid. However, to calm the waters they made a statement in which they claimed that the club was fully aware of this regulation. They go onto say: “Finally, the Club believes that by making signings only to strengthen the team for the upcoming knock-out stages of the Champions League it would be underestimating the current squad and ignoring the high expectations set on the Spanish league.”

"Michel, please do me a favor"

 No one is buying it and the high bosses of Madrid as well as the fans are already asking for their heads to roll. Mijatovic and Brucero have made a mockery of our Club way too many times and this should be the last straw. If we set such high standards for our players, then should it not be the same for those who run the club? Am I wrong to believe that those who represent you in the office matter as much as those who represent you on the field? How much longer should the fans accept the botched job done by the incompetent management? Under Calderon’s presidency Madrid have become a joke. A circus for all of Europe to laugh at. According to reports coming in from Spain, Calderon will take advantage of his close friendship with UEFA President Platini, and ask him to make an exception for Madrid and allow them to register both players. I can already see this going sour and I can already hear the crowd’s jeers towards the President and co. in the upcoming match at the Bernabeu. I predict one of historic proportions.

Looking for Excuses

So Madrid win and still manage to complain about the referees work in the game. Yes, I will admit that at times during the game I will find myself yelling at some of the referees calls, but once in a more rational state I see that there is really nothing to complain about. However, Shuster and Sporting director Mijatovic feel the need to go on a rant on how the referees are making constant calls against Madrid. They point out how against Atletico, Espanyol, and Betis, Madrid have been the so called victims to refereeing mistakes. They bring up interesting points but not enough to assure a conspiracy against Madrid. They fail to notice that this team makes mistakes that eventually end up costing them points or suffering to earn all three points. So far I have not seen one match were Madrid’s back line looked solid. Instead of looking for excuses and creating more drama than is needed they should look to fix the mistakes and improve Madrid’s game. Referees are human and make mistakes (sometimes horrific mistakes), but Madrid cannot go out and blame the ref for its loss or poor performance. Mijatovic and Shuster are making the club look foolish by making such claims and like I said, should instead be looking into delivering the great football once promised. Madrid are a grand club actually too grand of a club to be making such silly claims.

I wonder if Mijatovic and Shuster have ever thought about the little clubs that actually do lose points or are effected by referees favoritism to the big clubs like Madrid. I think not.