Stelios

[Ian Royal]

In it's self the incident isn't harmful and is about as likely to effect a penalty as any one person in the crowd shouting..


The problem I have is that it is indicative of the attitude in football as a whole these days, especially in the premiership. That of winning at any cost, with as much cheating as you can get away with, and then some more cheating on top.

These people are supposed to be role models and they are teaching Children and anyone else who is impressionable that cheating and breaking the rules is ok. That you should do everything you can to make things work for you, even to the detriment of others.

Football is a sport and should be played as such. Yes there is rivalry and antagonism, banter and abuse, but most of it is fairly light hearted. It should be a way of bonding with others and releasing aggression and passion in a controlled and harmless environment. Instead it just leads to violence and nastiness and an attitude of oxf*rd everyone else as long as I do alright.

That is why the ballon stamping shold be punished, and divers should be punished, the shovers and pullers should be punished and those who feign injury punished. Not because they are important offences in their own right but because they show a general trend in the premeditated cheating and flouting of rules in a sport.

[nivek elyod]

In it's self the incident isn't harmful and is about as likely to effect a penalty as any one person in the crowd shouting..


The problem I have is that it is indicative of the attitude in football as a whole these days, especially in the premiership. That of winning at any cost, with as much cheating as you can get away with, and then some more cheating on top.

These people are supposed to be role models and they are teaching Children and anyone else who is impressionable that cheating and breaking the rules is ok. That you should do everything you can to make things work for you, even to the detriment of others.

Football is a sport and should be played as such. Yes there is rivalry and antagonism, banter and abuse, but most of it is fairly light hearted. It should be a way of bonding with others and releasing aggression and passion in a controlled and harmless environment. Instead it just leads to violence and nastiness and an attitude of oxf*rd everyone else as long as I do alright.

That is why the ballon stamping shold be punished, and divers should be punished, the shovers and pullers should be punished and those who feign injury punished. Not because they are important offences in their own right but because they show a general trend in the premeditated cheating and flouting of rules in a sport.

It was still fairly hilarious, though (OK, not if Doyle had missed...), bit of a futile attempt.

[peeping_bernal]

Its not cheating bursting a balloon, its f'ing genius, I think our new away kit for next year should have a 'balloon' pocket and we can use them as a joker when the chips are down and the 13th man hasn't turned up as we have been to this and that ground 'last' year.
Sorry but all I could do is laugh if he thinks that a balloon popping would put him off over 20000+ fans jeering.

[Dirk Gently]

But if he'd yelled out "Oy Doyle" or something loudly as the penalty was being taken, he'd almost certainly have been booked - that comes into the same category as shouting out "mine" to put other players off.

Under law 12, the Laws of the game say :

Cautionable Offences
A player is cautioned and shown the yellow card if he commits any of
the following seven offences:
1. is guilty of unsporting behaviour

Yes, I know that if that was strictly applied with have games of 3 a side, but nowhere will you ever see quite as clear an instance of "unsporting behaviour", and the fact that he happened to have a balloon with him suggests it was definitely premeditated.

[coyrls]

I think it would have been more likely to work and have been even funnier if all 10 outfield players had each had a balloon and had all stamped on them simultaneously. Perhaps it's something that Reading should work on in training.

[aardvark]

On the thorny balloon issue, wasn't it the RFC v Wigan play off game when the match was temporarily stopped so that all the blue and white balloons (many of which were given out by the club if I remember) could be burst by the groundstaff because the Wigan manager had moaned about it after playing about 20 minutes with balloons all over the place.

However, I think the balloon issue is now being taken seriously in high places - I've heard Gordon Brown is taking steps to tackle inflation.

[Rawlie19]

Bolton away next season we all need to take loads of balloons and release them at kick-off. Theme day of balloons.

Kidding, honestly.

[Skyline]

Surprised no-one's pointed out that you can clearly see on the Sky coverage that Thompson was inside the D when he burst the balloon, meaning technically he was infringing, and if Doyle had missed the penalty it would have had to be retaken.

[comeonthebiscuitmen]

didnt notice it at the time.
was just watching the pen and praying it would go in.

did he really blow the balloon up first? havent seen footage of that.

[readingbedding]

He might have been carrying it up his top.

[Andy In Oz]

Whatever next?, soon we'll have the entire Chelsea team whipping out half a dozen each at every spot kick and in a flurry of squeaking and frantic tying of knots they'll be waving novelty giraffes at the penalty taker to put him off.

[shadesrwrf]

Sorry if this has been clarified previously, but did he actually take the balloon from about his person and blow it up or was it a stray balloon floating around on the pitch? If is was the latter then it was surely a piece of genius on his part. If it were the former it was rather ingenious but nevertheless, at best against the spirit of the game and at worst illegal. What next, a player concealing an airhorn in their underwear?

[Stranded]

Sorry if this has been clarified previously, but did he actually take the balloon from about his person and blow it up or was it a stray balloon floating around on the pitch? If is was the latter then it was surely a piece of genius on his part. If it were the former it was rather ingenious but nevertheless, at best against the spirit of the game and at worst illegal. What next, a player concealing an airhorn in their underwear?

Stray Balloon.

[Daniella]

" It wasn't me"

[M4 Junction 11]

Just shown on socceram. Also said it was Stelios